Lieutenant-Colonel Hew Blair-Imrie
5th/7th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

… while a bevy of padres of various denominations descended on me and started being sympathetic. Actually what I wanted at that moment was not sympathy (although I quite like the wounded hero role!) but a stimulant … well I got my stimulant in the form of hot sweet tea!’

(Blair-Imrie to wife quoted in Jon Latimer, Alamein, 198)

Born on 24 July 1915 in Brecknock, Breconshire, Wales, Hew Angus Christopher Blair-Imrie was an officer in the 5th Black Watch, which his father had commanded during the First World War. The younger Blair-Imrie served as a company commander during the Second Battle of El Alamein where he was wounded and earned the Military Cross.

Although he received a bullet wound in the forearm early in the attack he refused to give in and continued to inspire and encourage his men right up to the capture of his company’s objective. He continued to direct the re-organisation of the captured position amid intense shell-fire and only next afternoon did he agree to receive medical attention.

Throughout the battle he show complete disregard of his personal safety and displayed leadership of a very high order. Place El Alamein.

With the injury to his right hand, Blair-Irmie learned to write with his left. We know that Monty has the men materials and ability to drive the enemy right out of North Africa. “there were so many shell splinters lying about that the wonder was that anyone had got through alive,” he wrote to his wife of the conditions at the regimental aid post. “The only redeeming thing about this particular [battle],” he also wrote, “is that we all know it is the last one in North Africa. We know that Monty has the men materials and ability to drive the enemy right out of North Africa.” The campaign would, however, continue for over another six months.”

After recovery, Blair-Imrie became second-in-command of the 5th Black Watch. After over a month fighting in Normandy, Lieutenant-Colonel “Scrappy” Hay of the 5/7th Gordon Highlanders was wounded on 22 July. Major Martin Lindsay of the 1st Gordon Highlanders, who filled in temporarily, remarked, “The new C.O., Blair-Imrie, has arrived. He is five years younger than me but has had five times more battle experience having fought through the desert campaign and out here since D-Day.”

Blair-Imrie would only command for just over half a month before his death on 18 August 1944. “He had only been in the Battalion a few days,” the unit war diary recored, “but he had got to know all the companies and was proving himself to be a very fine Commanding Officer.” He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel George Douglas Renny, former CO of 1st King’s Own Scottish Borders, who had been wounded a month earlier.