Ewart Alan Mackintosh

Lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh MC (4 March 1893 – 21 November 1917) was a war poet and an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders from December 1914. Mackintosh was killed whilst observing the second day of the second Battle of Cambrai, 21 November 1917. His best poetry has been said to be comparable in quality to that of Rupert Brooke. Life Ewart Alan Mackintosh was born on 4 March 1893, the only son of Alexander Mackintosh and his wife, Lilian Rogers. Although he was born in Brighton in Sussex, his father's roots went back to Clan Mackintosh in Alness in Ross. His maternal grandfather was the Calvinist preacher James Guinness Rogers. He said that it was because of his grandfather's friendship with British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, that he was given his first name. He studied locally at Brighton College whilst also studying Scottish Gaelic and learning to play the Highland war pipes during the holidays. He continued his studies at St Paul's School in London and then studied Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. Mackintosh, who was a member of the University of Oxford Officers' Training Corps, tried to join the army immediately war broke out in August and while still in his university course. He was rejected on the grounds of his poor eyesight. He reapplied and was accepted by the Seaforth Highlanders, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 31 December 1914. He served with the 5th (The Sutherland and Caithness Highland) Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders (a Territorial Force unit), which was part of 51st (Highland) Division. He returned to Britain in August 1915 after being wounded in High Wood on the Somme. He was stationed near Cambridge for eight months during which time he was training cadets and he became engaged to Sylvia Marsh who was from a Quaker family. On 16 May he led a trench raid near Arras where fourteen of his men were wounded and two were killed. One of them, David Sutherland, inspired a poem "In Memoriam". Mackintosh was now a temporary lieutenant and he received the Military Cross on 24 June 1916. His citation in the London Gazette reads: