Great War Case

My father landed in France with the 7 Highland and Sutherland Highlanders on 16 December 1914. He was still in his unit on 22 January 1916 before being sent back to Edinburgh Castle Military Hospital where

he received a Certificate of Training in Massage. Presumably something traumatic (maybe shellshock) occurred just before 22 January that caused this change to a lighter assigment. In October1917 he was in the 5th Reserve, and S in Ripon. He was discharged 21 February 1919 as a Lance Corporal. I'd like to know where the traumatic incident before the 22 January took place.

I intend to visit this site in September, and need help locating the exact place. I have read John Kegan's

"The Face of Battle" and "The First World War" and know that the Pals units as the one set up from Alloa were not prepared for combat. It is very hard to get an accurate account of where the Alloa boys first met their nemesis, but I know from a trip to Alloa in 1964 that very few of the men who all went off at the same time returned. I know that people would rather not talk about this subject, but I am a so who seeks closure on why his father, who was forty-eight when I was born, acted as he did. I might add that he was a very peaceable man who must have carried quite a burden from the time he was nineteen.

I've asked the right questions, read the books, even taught a short course to my high-school seniors about the First World War and tried earnestly to find out what happened. I'm also curious why he didn't receive his 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal, but I guess that is asking too much.