During the First World War he wrote poetry and, with Wilfred Owen, was for a time joint editor of The Hydra, a journal published within Craiglockhart Military Hospital in Edinburgh.
[4] After working as a journalist with Northcliffe Press, he joined the Inns of Court Regiment, a territorial unit, at the beginning of the First World War, and was soon commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant.
[8] As editor, Salmond made improvements to The Hydra, the in-house magazine produced by patients to which both Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon contributed.
[10] Salmond became a prominent citizen of Dundee, and among other things was President of the local branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.
[11] He was also involved with the Scottish Youth Hostels Association, the Grampian Club, and the Abertay Historical Society, having settled at Newport-on-Tay.