Before the end of the “Great War” of 1914-1918, Dundee High School had lost twenty of its old scholars and three of its staff members to the vicissitudes of battle.
One scholar, Capt Garnet George Green, who had passed the Annual Collective Examination in 1903 at Dundee, was awarded the Military Cross for having, “held the whole wood [Delville Wood] with 118 men (of his B Company of the Second Regiment), the whole day against three German Divisions.”[1]
He had been born in Dundee in 1889 and after school he joined the Natal Carbineers as a trooper. He saw action during the Bambatha Rebellion of 1906 and also in German South West Africa in 1914 – 1915. From January to March 1916 he served (like his schoolmate Russel Tatham) with the 2nd South African Regiment against the Senussi in Egypt.
In the Battle of Delville Wood (15 July–3 September 1916), with the South African Infantry, he was wounded and on 20 July he was “the last [man] to leave the trench when relief arrived. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in January 1918; but on 23 March 1918, he was killed in action at Arras”.[2]
Brigadier-General Tanner recommended Lt. Green for the DSO (Distinguished Service Order), but instead he was awarded a bar to his MC[3] and the Prime Minister of South Africa, General Louis Botha, praised him in the South African parliament.
This brave man has no known grave but his name is recorded on the wall of the Pozières Memorial and, of course, on the Cenotaph in his hometown, Dundee.
[1] Natal Mercury, 29 March 1918.
[2] As stated in the recommendation for the award of the Military Cross.
[3] In other words, he was awarded a second Military Cross.