Talk:Robert Macara

Innacurate account of Colonel Macara's death

"On the 16 June 1815 at the Battle of Quatre Bras, Macara was wounded during an engagement and as he was carried from the field he was taken prisoner by a party of French soldiers. His decorations gave him away as an officer of rank and he was killed on the spot."

This is wholly innacurate, apart from the fact of Macara's wounding and subsequent death. As it is, the passage is a misquotation of the barely more accurate source referenced, which reads: "The death of Sir R. Macara at Quatre Bras was inexpressibly sad.He was wounded about the middle of the engagement, and was in the act of being carried off the field by four of his men, when a party of French un- expectedly surrounded and made them prisoners. Perceiving by the colonel's decorations that he was an officer of rank they immediately cut him down with his attendants."

The facts are that as French light cavalry, attacking from a flank, caught the 42nd before they could fully form square, Macara was wounded. He was being carried into the rear of the square, when a French lance pierced his throat and penetrated his brain. Both general and regimental histories will provide the reference: e.g.

1. 'A History of the Highlands', John Keltie, 1885. Vol 2, History of the Highland Regiments: 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, p 395.

<https://archive.org/details/historyofscottis20kelt/page/395/mode/1up?q=macara>

2.'The Black Watch: the record of an historic regiment,' Archibald Forbes 1896 p.268-269.

<https://archive.org/details/blackwatchrecord00forbuoft/page/268/mode/2up?q=macara>)

3.'The Black Watch, The History of the Royal Highland Regiment by Eric and Andro Linklater, 1977,

4.The Highlands Furies: The Black Watch 1739-1899, Victoria Schofield, 2012.

JF42 (talk) 19:10, 8 December 2020 (UTC)