Roll of Honour
Lieutenant
Neil McEachran
MA
Neil McEachran, the eldest son of Mr and Mrs Neil A L McEachran, of Thorntonhall Lanarkshire, was born in Hillhead, Glasgow, on 4th April 1895. He came from Kelvinside Academy to the High School in 1908. He was a brilliant scholar. In the last year he was co-editor of the School Magazine, and took a high place in the Bursary Examinations, winning a Clark Scholarship.
He took his MA degree in 1915, preliminary to studying for the Bar. A member of the University OTC from 1912, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Highland Light Infantry (HLI) on 30th July 1915. Specialising in Signalling and Bomb-throwing, he was appointed instructor in both. He took over a Labour Company to France in the spring of 1917, and had charge of important and dangerous work on Messines Ridge.
In September he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF), crossed to France again early in November, and acted with distinction as a photographer and signaller of gun-emplacements by plane. During the “Big Push” of March-April, 1918, he acted as a Bomber, and after six months of nerve-wracking work was sent home to recruit.
He held a staff appointment till the Armistice at Halton Camp, Wendover. On 21st April 1919, he was recalled to his old Air Squadron, then the Rhine Army of Occupation at Duren, and was accidently killed through his machine nose-diving while he was Lewis-gun firing at ground targets from a low altitude.
Comments and Citations
Obituary: The High School of Glasgow: the book of Service and Remembrance (Glasgow: Maclehose, Jackson, 1921)
Burial Place: Commonwealth War Gra