Ian Mac Alister Stewart - First World War

First World War

Stewart was commissioned into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in February 1914 and served throughout the First World War. During this war, he was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, and created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). At the end of the war, Stewart was a Temporary Captain. He became heir to Achnacone after his older brother, Captain Alexander D.L. Stewart MC, died in a motor cycle accident in Dublin in 1919.

As with many Army officers between the wars, Stewart was placed on half pay, but was restored to full pay as a Captain on 3 June 1925 On 8 September 1931, Stewart was promoted to major. Stewart's military career was dominated by his service with the Argylls, a regiment to which he was so wedded that when he was given command of the 2nd Battalion in the 1930s some of his brother officers did not even realise that he was married with a daughter. Stewart had married Ursula Morely-Fletcher in 1937 when he was 42 years old. He even refused a position at the staff college at Camberley to remain with his battalion thereby losing the only way to senior command.