 On her fourteenth birthday , Britain declared war on Germany . Four of her brothers served in the army . Her elder brother , Fergus , an officer in the Black Watch Regiment , was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915 . Another brother , Michael , was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917 . Three weeks later , the family discovered he had been captured after being wounded . He remained in a prisoner of war camp for the rest of the war . Glamis was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers , which Elizabeth helped to run . She was particularly instrumental in organising the rescue of the castle 's contents during a serious fire on 16 September 1916 . One of the soldiers she treated wrote in her autograph book that she was to be " Hung , drawn , & quartered ... Hung in diamonds , drawn in a coach and four , and quartered in the best house in the land . " 
