Miscellaneous - Waterloo Story
Battle of Waterloo
Family history records the saga of two boys, members of the Murdoch
family, late of 32 Hill Road.
One morning in the Spring of 1815 James Murdoch entered the weaving
shop which he shared with his two sons. “Where is Willie?” he asked of
his younger son James. “He has gone to Larkhall to enlist in the army”
was the reply. “Well go down and bring him back James” his father
instructed, “tell him we have too much work on hand as it is”. Meeting
up with his brother on the old Stonehouse to Larkhall road the younger
boy delivered the message as advised. “Come on you coward” said Willie.
The will of the older boy prevailed and both lads joined up as
volunteers in the local infantry regiment, 26th Foot (Cameronians).
On the fatal day, Sunday 18th June 1815, both lads were mortally
wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. On the fly leaf of a bible they
wrote their names with the only medium available to them - blood. The
bible was duly returned to the family by a survivor, as a melancholy
relic of the two volunteers who had died for their country. Sunday 18th
June 1815 and the irreparable loss to the Murdoch family was long to be
remembered in Stonehouse.
Another military related incident, was that of Mrs William Alston who
records her father telling her that, as a young boy of ten, witnessed
from a tree on Kittymuir farm in 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite
army marching along Carlisle Road. This can be supported by a recording
of the Jacobite army making a temporary stop in Larkhall.
It is a misconception that all Jacobites were Highlanders, George
Lockhart of Carnwath (descendant of the Lockharts of Castlehill) was
adherent to the Jacobite cause in Lowland Scotland. It is also untrue
that all Jacobites were Catholic, for they also comprised of
Episcopalians and Presbyterians.
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