Victoria’s Fighting Gillespie Family

By Murray Thom, Victoria

In 1914, George Gillespie, manager of the Bank of BC, had seven sons and one married daughter. By the end of that year, five of those sons and the son-in-law were commissioned in uniform, either in the 50th Battalion Highland Regiment, Victoria, or in British Army regiments. Hebden (thirty-six) was a local business man, Alexander (thirty-four) was a BC land surveyor, and Kenneth (thirty-three) was a bank clerk. Hebden, Dugald (thirty), Ronald (twenty-four), Sholto (twentythree) and Erroll (twenty-one) were all associated with the local militia, the 50th Regiment of the Gordon Highlanders, which became part of the 16th Battalion Canadian Scottish, CEF. Florence was married to Eric Colbourne, a registered BC land surveyor working with Alexander.

When war against Germany was declared, son-in-law Eric Colbourne returnedto Britain and was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the 3rd Royal Berkshire Regiment. Later in 1914, Sholto Gillespie left Victoria and journeyed to Scotland with his buddy George Tyson, independent of any military unit. Sholto was commissioned in the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. After training with the 4th Battalion in England he joined the 91st Battalion, May 1915, in the trenches of Flanders where his cousin, Douglas Gillespie, was also fighting with the 90th Battalion next to the 91st. In June 1915, Douglas and Sholto learned that Eric had been awarded the Military Cross for an action close by at Cuinchy but had died of his wounds. On September 25, 1915, Douglas was killed in a charge against the German trenches. In 1916, Sholto was transferred with the 1st Battalion of the Argyles to the Balkan–Macedonian front near Salonika. In 1917 it was reported in the Victoria Daily Colonist that he had been wounded and was in the hospital in Salonika.

Hebden, a major, had been transferred to the Canadian Field Artillery, 15th Brigade, and was in England. Ronald, a lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders, had been taken prisoner in January 1915 and, in spite of a desperate attempt to escape with a buddy by jumping from the top of a fifty-foot wall at the fortress of Lille, was still a prisoner in 1917. On the escape attempt, his buddy had broken his leg and Ronald assisted him and they returned to the fortress to turn themselves in. Erroll, a lieutenant in the 50th Gordon Highlanders, was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and served in the trenches in France in 1917 and through to 1918.

Dugald was commissioned as a provisional first lieutenant in the 50th Gordon Highlanders and served in Canada. Florence, the widow of Eric Colbourne, served with a nursing unit attached to the Serbian Army in Salonika. It was in Salonika where she was surprised and pleased to meet her brother Sholto, who had been wounded and hospitalized there.

With the exception of the loss of the two Scottish cousins and the brother-in-law, all the other Gillespie highlander soldiers returned to civilian life after the war. Ronald was posted to Siberia with the British Military Mission, having learned Russian while a prisoner of war. He then ended up in China as a manager with Imperial Chemical Industries UK, where he was later joined by Sholto. Florence took up residence in England while Hebden, Dugald and Erroll all returned to Canada.

I am married to the older daughter of the second-youngest Gillespie son. As an introduction for my eleven-year-old grandson to the forthcoming hundredth anniversary of World War I, we visited the Commonwealth cemeteries and memorials marking the resting places of the Gillespie casualties in both world wars.

One final note of British Columbian interest: the Gillespie son-in-law, Eric Colbourne, was a registered BC land surveyor. Colbourne Creek, north of Prince George, is named in his honour. He was awarded the Military Cross posthumously for his action in June 1915.

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