LIEUTENANT ROBERT HAY SQUAIR
SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS
13TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: ST JULIEN DRESSING STATION CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Glasgow Herald
Tuesday 23 October 1917
Deaths on Service
Squair - Died of wounds received in action on 12th October, Robert Hay Squair, Second Lieutenant, Seaforth Highlanders, eldest son of the late Francis Hay Squair JP and of Mrs Squair, Barone View, Rothsay
Robert Squair was commissioned into the 7th Battalion the Seaforth Highanders in August 1915. The Battalion took part in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, the Somme Campaign, July to November 1916, the 1st and 2nd Battles of the Scarpe during the 1917 Arras Campaignm and Third Ypres where in the First Battle of Passchendaele they suffered heavy casualties attacking over sodden ground against the well-defended German machine guns. Squair was wounded on the first day of the battle and died the next day.
His inscription comes either from Psalm 36 verse 7:
How excellent is thy loving kindness O God: therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings
Or from Psalm 17 verse 8:
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
Either quotation evokes the image of a bird using its wings to both shield and shelter its young, to protect them from the elements and from predators, and to provide them with warmth and security. Robert Squair's mother chose his inscription, the subtext being that her son is now safe from harm in God's keeping.