McIntosh, John (1894 - 1918)

Second Lieutenant, 217th Siege Bty. Royal Garrison Artillery

Buried at Loos Memorial

Commemorated at Hillhead High School

Second Lieutenant John Mclntosh was the elder son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Mclntosh, 38 Bishop's Road, Jordanhill. At School he was noted for his loyal, upright character, his sunny nature, and his quiet, courteous manners. His interests at School were many sided, but the great names in English literature had a special fascination for him, and in their study and exposition he hoped to find his life work.
The Photographic Club in connection with the School was largely his creation, and to the last he took an active interest in its welfare. Besides photography he had two other hobbies, cycling and music, and into each he entered with his usual zest.

On leaving School he entered Glasgow University, intending to study for an Honour's Degree in English, and during his first term gained the Lanfine Bursary as the most distinguished student of his year in this subject. In his case, as in so many others, war came to interrupt his studies and to cut short his course. He received a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and surely never was there a more devoted and cheerier soldier. Last autumn he went to France and sent back the brightest of letters. Writing to the headmaster he said, "I have fallen in with good quarters, good food, interesting work, and, most important of all, fine company, both officers and men. The battery has had a very heavy time of it, but, in spite of that, they are all bright and cheery, thankful for quieter times and a whole skin. They are just a real British lot freshened up again by a short spell of what they call rest, but what would seem to folks at home jolly hard work."
In the same letter he promises if he can at all find time to write a short article for the School Magazine.

But it was otherwise willed. On the 11th April, 1918, the Germans began their great thrust for the Channel ports, and John McIntosh fell in a gallant attempt to stem the onrush when the Portuguese lines broke. A fellow officer writes, "As always, on that morning nothing kept him back from doing the right thing. His life was ended in an endeavour to carry out the highest duty of an officer, that of conveying an order himself rather than risk the lives of his men - a heroic deed, none the less great because unrecorded in official records."

His commanding officer says, "He died doing his duty most bravely under exceptionally trying circumstances. Those of us who are left will feel his loss greatly. I cannot say enough of his work in the short time he has been with me."

And so in death as in life John McIntosh proved himself "a veray parfit, gentil knight."