Major Hugh Cairns
5th Battalion, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders

Members of the Battalion at this time will remember Colonel Cairns sitting out under an apple tree in an orchard in Battalion H.Q.’s area behind the “‘Triangle,’ quite impervious to the sniping self-propelled gun, which dropped many shells into this area at unpredictable moments, with generally unpleasant results: his gallantry and example at Ste Honorine will not easily be forgotten.

(Historical Records of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders 1932-1948, 103)

Born on 27 Jan 1911 Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, Hugh William Cairns was a grandson of Lord Chancellor Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns (1819—1885). Cairns was commissioned in the Cameron the Highlanders and served in India before the outbreak of the Second World War. He joined the 5th Battalion in May 1944 and led C Company on landing in France a month later.

He distinguished himself during the intense fighting in Normandy and earned the Military Cross. During a Germany counterattack on 12 June, Cairns and a small group were trapped in a house in an occupied village. As he had not received the order to withdraw, his group held the house until the Germans pulled out under shell fire. At the end of the month, Lieutenant-Colonel A.G.F. Monro returned to the United Kingdom and Cairns assumed command.

His tenure would be brief. Under constant shelling an area called the Triangle, the battalion suffered heavy casualties, and on 22 July, Cairns was hit. The medical officer saved his life with a blood transfusion during the evacuation to the dressing station. Command passed to Major C.A.H.M. Noble but he was wounded two days later. Major P.M. Hunt took over until the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Derek Lang, who had escaped as a prisoner of war in 1940 and served in Africa.

The regimental history said of Cairns, he “had only commanded the Battalion for a month, but during that brief period had proved himself a cool and deliberate commander.” After a lengthy recovery he rejoined the 5th Camerons as second-in-command in December, but the lingering effects of his wounds lead to his posting back to the UK in April 1945.

Cairns died on 4 March 1996 in Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland.