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Medal Trio To 139 Pte Angus McLeod of 52nd (Lowland) Division Cyclist Company of VIII Corps and Army Cyclist Corps. Formed from Infantry Battalions of the Division, a draft of 2 Officers and 67 men which came from the 2/9th ( Glasgow ) Highland Light Infantry Battalion joined the Company on 26th April 1915, Angus joined about this time and he was given the number 139 on joining, a Divisional Cyclist Company had a total strength of only 204 men. Most units of the Corps served out their time in the UK, providing replacement drafts to Infantry Battalions. Formed units of the Corps were not sent overseas, this was done in small groups of men with Divisions possessing individual Cyclist Companies and Composite Battalions later formed at Corps level in 1916. The primary roles of the Cyclists were reconnaissance and communications ( message taking ), they were armed as Infantry and could provide mobile firepower if required, those units that went overseas continued in these roles but when the mobile phase of the war had settled into a trench warfare then they spent much of their time doing trench-holding duties and on manual work. These Cyclist troops were rarely committed to action rather being held back in preparation for a resumption of normal mobile warfare. In 1918 with the deadlock of the trenches overcome Cyclist proved invaluable for Reconnaissance once again. In May and June 1916 all Cyclist Companies were withdrawn from the Divisions to form a Cyclist Battalion for each Corps HQ and placed under Corps Command. Many Cyclist were killed or wounded when shot off their cycles by German snipers when taking messages back to their HQs.