Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

As I was searching for the owner of the mysterious Army Form B2067, I came across the tale of Harry Reid Harkness.

Birth of Harry Reid Harkness 1916

One secret revealed exposes ten or more new ones. Thus, when browsing through a cemetery website I notice that Captain Picken is receiving the Military Cross from Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. Of course, the name ‘Picken’ strikes a bell. Margaret Picken married James Whitecross around the mid-nineteenth century. However, I can’t research this further now, or I will never be able to finish this ‘book’ – so I will leave this up to readers in general, and members of my family in particular. It may perhaps be a ‘dead end’. It is often the case that when one searches ‘dead ends’, one discovers something new and expected, like the ‘accidental’ discovery of penicillin.

I think this discussion has taken us to a kind of conclusion regarding  ARMY FORM B 2067. It seems to be very important, but we don’t know why. So this will need further investigation – hopefully by others than me.

Harry Reid’s parents

To provide some background information, I will insert the wedding photos of James and Charlotte. My second cousin, James Whitecross Harkness, sent it as an email attachment. I also include their marriage certificate, which I sourced on ScotlandsPeople. 

Harry Reid Harkness’ Death 1944

3061009 Corporal
Harry Reid Harkness
8th Bn. Royal Scots
14th September 1944, aged 28.
Plot I. A. 10.

Son of James Whitecross Harkness and Charlotte Riddle Harkness, of Edinburgh; husband of Alice Emma Harkness, of Leith, Edinburgh. James and Charlotte were the uncle and aunt of my father (see family trees in appendix).

His headstone bears the inscription “To The Memory Of A Devoted Husband Loved By All. Loving Wife Alice”

Harry Reid’s death was around the time when my father had said he was in Antwerp, Belgium, under the V1 and V2 bombings.

I searched ScotlandsPeople and found the following document (I have extracted the relevant part):

ScotlandsPeople : War records – Death of Harry Reid

Harry Reid – dying for a crumbling Empire

As mentioned elsewhere here, I am not a professional historian. Yet one can’t help but notice some obvious points in the above document. The Second World War according to popular British historiography and ideology was a war against non-democratic forces. I don’t want to bore the reader with various citations sourced from the Internet regarding this topic. This is rather a matter of common sense rather than expert historiographical knowledge. Referred to elsewhere here is Churchill’s “We Shall Never Surrender”. In this speech Churchill talks of “Empire”. To put this in blunt terms, Churchill was a defender of ‘Empire’, and NOT a defender of democracy. 

Another observation is that poor old Harry Reid isn’t even given his own death certificate in ScotlandsPeople. He is listed alongside other ‘cannon fodder’. How many of these soldiers were defending ‘democracy’, and how many were defending the ‘Empire’? Of 13 entries 9 of the soldiers were killed defending the Empire (70%). To put it plainly, Churchill was full of bullshit, as was the British propaganda. 

Another theme which I won’t even enter into here is were the democratic USA interested in supporting the British Empire? Obviously not. They had also once been a colony in the British Empire. Thus, if I were to sum up, Britain did not ‘win’ the war – there was only one ‘winner’ – the US, with the Soviet Union in second place (although this ‘victory’ was short-lived). 

Document relating to Harry’s death

According to the document, a man named Andrew Harkness was also killed around the same time, but I don’t know if he is related.