Landships II

James H · Legend

Matthew Pinsent, Tanks, and Suicide.

Rectalgia · Legend

Have you looked at http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46329? There are some further materials referenced there, some of which cannot be accessed without logging in (photo, search reference to another topic/discussion at 1914-1918.invisionzone.com.

He is not on the Honour Roll of the Tank Corps (not the early-ish version I have anyway). That wasn't the "form", perhaps that is still the case - a very tough call on occasion, if you ask me, thinking of a case of which I have some knowledge, 50 years after in Borneo where leptospirosis contracted on duty and failure to diagnose and provide effective treatment of same by the army might well be part of the picture. But, we know how the military regards "self-harm" and they certainly hadn't the inclination, resources or justification to reach for a more humane view in the melee of the Western Front.

James H · Legend

Thanks, Rect. There's a lot about him in The Tanks at Flers. He was a close friend of Basil Henriques. It seems that there were various initial accounts of his cause of death, but he does appear to have shot himself.

Rhomboid · Field Marshal

Colin Hardy wrote an article in a 2010 issue of "Stand To" about the tank attack on the Quadrilateral on 15/9/16. Although I haven't had the opportunity to read it, I gather that he refutes Trevor Pidgeon's proposal that Macpherson committed suicide following the attack. Henriques' memoir "Indiscretions of a Warden", written in 1937, mentioned that a�C Co. officer had shot himself after the action on Sept. 15. This claim was also made by an officer of the 6th Inf. Div. (which had attacked the Quadrilateral that day). Since Macpherson was the only fatal officer casualty in C Co. on 15/9/16, Pidgeon inferred that that he was the officer who committed suicide, and that Henriques was exercising discretion in his memoir�with regard to naming the officer. However, a memoir by one of Macpherson's crewmen states that he was killed by shellfire while returning to headquarters for orders. Macpherson�was admitted to a CCS on the 15th, and is recorded as dying of wounds. Henriques was wounded during the attack on the Quadrilateral, and following his return to the British lines in his damaged tank, he met Macpherson, whose tank had been delayed by engine problems and was waiting go forward.�Henriques was evacuated as a casualty immediately afterwards, and he did not learn of Macpherson's death until after his discharge from hospital in�London. Henriques�spoke with some of Macpherson's crew on his return to France in 1917, and they told him about Macpherson's death resulting from a shrapnel wound.