Mystery remains over World War I medal

IT is a story with an eerie ring to it — a World War I medal found in Inverness on Remembrance Sunday at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

The medal was recovered in 1984 from Inverness Castle’s well just as church bells were ringing after the two-minute’s silence.

But for one of its finders, former strath police officer Pete Carson, it has posed an abiding mystery.

It is one which the Carrbridge man now hopes to solve after 27 years of searching for the soldier’s remaining family.

The medal was awarded to a Private William Smellie Hogg, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, but so far Mr Carson has been unsuccessful in attempts to track down his relatives.

He is now appealing for anyone who might be able to help with the search and solve the mystery of why the British War Medal was in the well.

"I am hoping there will be someone in Inverness for whom it might ring bells," Mr Carson said.

"I would love to be able to hand the medal to anyone in the family. It would be great."

The on-going mystery was rekindled following the recent publication of a group photograph in The Inverness Courier’s popular Picture Detective feature which asks readers to identify the people and the event captured in photographs taken from Highland Council’s Am Baile history archive.

Among the many who came forward to explain what the picture was about was Mr Carson, a former Northern Constabulary community involvement officer based at the castle in 1984.

"There is a well at the back of the castle, which must be about 25ft deep, and it was an absolute mess with all the rubbish," he recalled.

"As a department, we approached the council to ask if they would remove the grill and we would go down on rope ladders and take all the rubbish out. We would then go through it all and see if there was anything of interest before it was put in a skip."

The operation took several days but coincidentally the medal was discovered on Sunday 11th November about 11am. "One of the lads was down there at that point," he recalled. "He brought it up and it didn’t need to be cleaned. It was in great condition."

Mr Carson managed to track down Private Hogg’s medal index card and discovered he was also entitled to the Victory Medal.

The card revealed he served with the 10th 1/7th and 1/5th Battalions. Two other dates are also mentioned — 4th July 1921, which Mr Carson wonders whether it could be a discharge date, and 15th April 1955 which he speculates could be when Mr Hogg died.

However, any further research about Private Hogg’s war was thwarted when he discovered World War I documents for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were destroyed in a bombing raid in World War II.

Mr Carson, who lives in Carrbridge and works as development officer on a regeneration project in Helmsdale, would love to find out more.

"It leaves you to wonder why on earth that medal was at the bottom of the well," he said. "Was it stolen from the house, or thrown out, or is there some other explanation?"

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