Fact file:

  • Matriculated: 1894

  • Born: 16 May 1875

  • Died: 21 October 1914

  • Regiment: 19th (Queen Alexandra’s Own Royal) Hussars

  • Grave/Memorial: Strand Military Cemetery: VIII.Q.5

Family background

b. 16 May 1875 at Cliff House, Wemyss Bay, Renfrewshire, as the youngest son of the writer (solicitor) and Procurator James Howe McClure (1812–91) and his second wife Charlotte Russell McClure (née Russell) (1846–75) (m. 1872), the daughter of a QC, who died ten days after his birth.

 

Parents and antecedents

In 1873 James Howe and his second wife were living at 9, Berkeley Terrace, Glasgow. In 1881, the widowed James Howe, the twins from his first marriage, and his two youngest children were living at 13, Windsor Terrace, Partick, Glasgow. In 1891, McClure was living with his step-brother Robert (together with his wife, Catherine, and four children) at 51, Westbourne Gardens, Partick, Glasgow.

But after his father’s death in the same year, McClure became the ward of his brother-in-law, the philanthropist and chemical manufacturer John Campbell White, two years before Gladstone included his name on the Queen’s birthday honours list for service to the Liberal Party and he became Baron Overtoun. An educated man (MA Glasgow in Philosophy, 1865) and the only son of seven children, in 1867 White became a partner in the family firm of John and James White, whose Shawfield chemical works at Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, was then the largest chrome producer in the world. White had been brought up in a religious atmosphere, and both he and his wife, McClure’s half-sister Grace Eliza, were deeply influenced by the American evangelists Sankey and Moody when they visited Scotland in 1874. With her support and approval, he then devoted much time and money to charitable, philanthropic and religious causes both at home and abroad (especially Nyasaland, now Malawi), and was heavily involved as a Liberal in Dunbartonshire politics. After serving as a county councillor and the county’s Deputy Lieutenant from 1884 to 1907, White became its Lord Lieutenant in 1907. It may be that his public-spiritedness caused him to neglect the family business, of which he had been the sole proprietor since his father’s death in 1884, and his reputation was damaged when, in 1899, the Labour politician Keir Hardie publicly exposed the very low wages (4d. an hour) and appalling working conditions that prevailed in his notorious Shawfield works. Moreover, although he himself was a strict Lord’s Day observer, his works did not shut down on Sundays, causing him to be accused of hypocrisy as well.

 

Charles Russell McClure, MA (Glasgow), BA (Oxon)
(Photo courtesy of Magdalen College, Oxford)

“On 21 October 1914, McClure’s ‘B’ Sqdn was sent to plug a gap where a German counter-attack had broken through and support an attempt to retake the trenches. Although this attack was ‘completely successful’, McClure was shot through the head by a rifle bullet from the enemy in the wood immediately in front while observing their positions. On the same night, McClure’s niece Grace was surprised to see ‘Uncle Charlie’ wandering from room to room in their Glasgow house where he had often visited them: believing him to be in France she mentioned the sighting to her younger brother who also claimed to have seen him. Only later did they learn of their uncle’s death.”

 

Siblings and their families

Half-brother of the six children of James Howe’s marriage (1841) to Grace McClure (née Buchanan) (1819–53):

(1) Robert McClure (1844–1908); married (1872) Katherine Mary Kidston (1849–1940), three sons, one daughter;

(2) Grace Eliza (1845–1931) (later White after her marriage in 1867 to John Campbell White, from 1893 Baron Overtoun (see above), 1843–1908);

(3) Allan Buchanan (b. 1848, died in infancy);

(4) Jane Howe (1851–1928) (later Kidston-Kerr after her marriage in 1873 to Lieutenant (later Colonel, DL, CB) Alexander Ferrier Kidston-Kerr, 1841–1926);

(5) James Howe (1852–1908); married (1884) Ellen (Ella) Mary Collier (1858–1931), three sons, two daughters;

(6) James’s twin brother George (Joe) Buchanan (1852–88 [New South Wales]); married (c.1884) Helen Smith Thomson (1863 [Scotland]–1901 [New South Wales]), two sons.

Charles Russell McClure was also the brother of:

(7) Lucy Agnes (1873–1943), later White after her marriage in 1898 to John Douglas Campbell White (1874–1940), one son.

Robert McClure became a writer (solicitor) and married the daughter of a Glasgow iron merchant.

Jane Howe married a professional soldier who was an officer, possibly in the 42nd Highlanders (since 1881 The Black Watch).

James Howe became either a mercantile clerk or a chemical merchant’s assistant and married the daughter of the author Dr William Francis Collier (1830–1904).

George (Joe) Buchanan became a member of the Glasgow Stock Exchange in later life.

Lucy Agnes married the son of a chemical manufacturer who matriculated as a medical student at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a general practitioner in London.

 

Education

For the first 15 years of his life, McClure was brought up by an elderly father and a nanny. He then attended Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, from c.1884 to 1889. In October 1891 he came 44th in the prestigious University Bursary Examination and matriculated at the University of Glasgow as a student of Latin and Greek in 1892, when he was only 17. In the academic year 1893–94 he took classes in Logic, Moral Philosophy and Literature, but he did not get a Scottish MA until 1894. It is likely that he knew the novelist John Buchan, who, as a Bursary winner, began his studies in Glasgow in 1894. He matriculated at Magdalen as a Commoner on 16 October 1894 and then took the Preliminary Examination (Honours) in Hilary Term (Literature) and Trinity Term (Holy Scriptures) 1896, and was awarded a 3rd. In Trinity Term 1898 he was awarded a 4th in Literae Humaniores (Honours) and he took his BA on 17 November 1898. During 1899 he studied Law in the chambers of Mr Ernest Murray Pollock (later KC, PC, MP, from 1936 the 1st Viscount Hanworth), who was the Conservative MP for Warwick and Leamington from 1910 to 1923 (Solicitor-General then Attorney-General 1919–22) and Master of the Rolls from 1923 to 1935.

 

Military and war service

After graduation, McClure, whom President Warren described posthumously as “pleasant, clear-headed and able”, became a professional soldier and received a University Commission in the 19th (Queen Alexandra’s Own Royal) Hussars (“The Dumpies”), a colourful cavalry regiment with a reputation for daring that had been established in 1857. He was gazetted Second Lieutenant on 22 March 1900, left for the Second Boer War in November 1900, and was promoted Lieutenant in October of the following year. He served in South Africa throughout the War, so must have known James Windsor Lewis, and took part in operations in Cape Colony, the Transvaal, Orange River Colony and the Relief of Mafeking, for which he was awarded the Queen’s Medal with five clasps. He came back to Britain in January 1904 and was promoted Captain in February 1907, Adjutant on 20 February 1910 and Major on 14 March 1914.

On the outbreak of war, McClure was still a serving officer and the Regiment was stationed at Hounslow, Middlesex. By 22 August, McClure’s ‘B’ Squadron had become the Divisional Cavalry of the 4th Division and on 23 August it disembarked at Rouen. On 26 August it saw action at Busigny, south-west of Cambrai, and on 27 August it continued its retreat, arriving in Compiègne, north-east of Paris, on 31 August. From 1 to 13 September it formed part of a composite cavalry Regiment: on 17 September it was at Bury-le-Long, west of Compiègne, and it spent the period 18 September–6 October in the area of Septmonts and Villeblain, two villages just to the south of Soissons away from the fighting on the Marne and the Aisne. On 6 October McClure’s Squadron began to move north-west, towards Le Meaux; it entrained there on 10 October; and it arrived at Watten, north-west of St-Omer, on 12 October, where it stayed until the following day. On 14 October it moved north-eastwards to Caëstre and Flêtre near the Belgian border, advanced on Bailleul, drove out the enemy, occupied the town and was at Neuve-Église, a few miles into Belgium, by the evening. McClure’s Squadron then patrolled in this area on 16/17 October and on 17 October incurred its first officer casualty near Le Bizet, to the east of Bailleul and south of Ploegsteert. It stayed in this area until 20 October, i.e. during the opening phases of the First Battle of Ypres, and arrived in Le Gheer on 21 October with orders to act as a dismounted unit in this very open country, to plug a gap where a German counter-attack had broken through the British line, and to support an attempt to retake the trenches.

Although this attack was “completely successful”, McClure, aged 39, was shot through the head while observing the German positions by an enemy sniper who was concealed in the wood immediately in front. One of his men wrote a letter of condolence to McClure’s family in which he said: “We knew perfectly well that we were in a very warm corner – but we had been in so many warm corners – and Major McClure always got us out – and quite safe too – Everyone I know in our Squadron would have followed him anywhere.” On the following day, a party was sent out to fetch McClure’s body but was unable to do so because of hostile fire; nevertheless, two of his men, Sergeant Brunton and Private Jerome, were awarded the DCM for their part in the attempted rescue.

 

Strand Military Cemetery (just to the east of the main road and just south of Ploegsteert); Grave VIII.Q.5

 

On 23 October McClure was buried at Le Gheer where he had fallen: he is now buried in Strand Military Cemetery, to the east of the main road just south of Ploegsteert, in Grave VIII.Q.5; the inscription reads: “Greater love hath no man than this. R.I.P.” (John 15:13). The same quotation from the Bible, or a version of it, is to be found in Latin and English on Magdalen’s War Memorial and in English on the headstones of R.H.P. Howard, J. Windsor Lewis, G.B. Gilroy, R. Roberts, E.G. Worsley, A. Tait-Knight and J.F. Russell. It is also on the headstone of Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse (9 November 1884–4 August 1917) of the Royal Army Medical Corps, a former pupil of Magdalen College School who graduated with a first at Trinity College, Oxford, represented Great Britain in the 1908 Olympic Games, and is one of the three men ever to win the Victoria Cross twice. He is buried in the Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, Grave III.B.15, and his headstone is unique in that it bears two small representations of the VC instead of the usual large one.

On the night of McClure’s death, his niece Grace, then aged 29, was surprised to see “Uncle Charlie” wandering from room to room in their Glasgow house where he had often visited them; believing him to be in France she mentioned the sighting to her 15-year-old brother who, it turned out, also claimed to have seen him. Only later did they learn of their uncle’s death. McClure was later mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette, no. 29,072, 16 February 1915, p. 1,653) and left £7,965 11s. 3d.

 

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

 

Printed sources:

 [Anon.], ‘Major Charles Russell McClure’ [obituary], The Bond of Sacrifice, 1 (1914), p. ???????

 [Thomas Herbert Warren], ‘Oxford’s Sacrifice’ [obituary], The Oxford Magazine, 33, no. 4 (6 November 1914), p. 59.

Clutterbuck, i (1915), pp. 238–9.

Lionel Alexander Ritchie, ‘White, John Campbell, Baron Overtoun (1843–1908)’, DNB, 58 (2004), p. 599.

 

Archival sources: 

MCA: Ms. 876 (III), vol. 2.

MCA: PR 32/C/3/811-812 (President Warren’s War-Time Correspondence, Letters relating to C.R. McClure [1915]).

OUA: UR 2/1/24.

WO95/1466.

 

On-line sources:

‘Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC and bar, MC’: www.archives.gla.ac.uk/honour/