The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Per Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Name: James Tait Kirkhope
Rank: Corporal, 13 Bn., Royal Scots
Service Number: 16170
Date of Death: 23 April 1917 Age not given
Memorial: Bay 1 and 2 Arras Memorial
Information: none (from CWGC)

Per: Census 1911 at Mount Hooly, North Queensferry, age (15) born Balerno, Message Boy in Naval Base Works
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Bald, Robert

Per Commonwealth War Graves website
Rank: Lance Corporal, 2nd Bn., King’s Own Scottish Borderers
Service Number: 44044
Date of Death: 2 September 1916 Age 22
Burial: ll B.37 La Neuville British Cemetery, Corbie, France (Somme)
Information: Son of Mr and Mrs Walter Bald, Priory Cottage, North Queensferry. At the Census of 1911 he appears an apprentice mason. Although his service record does not survive, his medal card shows that pre-war he was a Territorial in the Highland Cyclist Battalion, based in Kirkcaldy. Widow's pension claim shows that he married Hilda in November 1915 and was promoted Lance Corporal on 9 Aug 1916. He died of wounds.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Lockhart, Archibald F.J.

Per CWGC website
Name: AFJ Lockhart
Rank Sapper, 12 Field Company Royal Engineers
Service Number: 4922
Date of Death: 2 March 1916 Age 43
Buried: Vl. D. 23, Etaples Military Cemetery, France (Pas de Calais)
Information: Husband of Mrs. E. Lockhart, of Caroline Court, 1058, Nelson St., Vancouver, British Columbia

He appears to have been born about 1877 in Dunstable, Bedfordshire (which would make him 39 at death) and joined the Royal Engineers as a regular Sapper about 1895 and was trained as a carpenter. He married Ellen (sometimes called Helen or Nellie) at Edinburgh in 1909 at which time he was stationed at Carlingnose Barracks in North Queensferry. They had a son Frederick in 1910. His wife lived with her mother at Battery Road, North Queensferry, but It appears she may have moved to Canada in 1912. The circumstances are unclear.
Archibald died of wounds in 24 General Hospital, Etaples.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

per CWGC website
Name: Albert Julian Coutts
Rank: Private, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
Service Number: S/22207
Date of Death: 24 September 1918 Age not given but assumed to be 31
Memorial: Panel 7, Vis-en-Artois Memorial
Information: None from CWGC. Service record does not survive, but from medal card and other research he seems to have been born 21 June 1887 in Esselmont Avenue, Aberdeen (the only Albert J Coutts to be born in Scotland between 1870 and 1900). At the 1911 census he appears as a Carriage Groom, lodging in Jamieson Street, Edinburgh. He enlisted in RASC as Private R/4/095941 and apparently served with them in Egypt in 1915 before transferring to the Black Watch. [14Bn (Fife & Forfar Yeomanry) Royal Highlanders Black Watch]. His North Queensferry connection is unclear. He was KIA (possibly by shelling) while the battalion was in the line between Bony and Bellicourt.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Donaldson, Thomas
per CWGC website
Rank: Private, Highland Light Infantry
Service Number: 43069
Date of Death: 11 July 1917 Age not given
Burial: I.B. 5, Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium, West-Vlaanderen
Information: Brother of James Donaldson, Salisbury House, North Queensferry

per Census 1911, may be the man living at Chapel Close, Thomas Donaldson (22) born Kingskettle, labourer in Whinstone quarry, son of George, council water officer.
Medal card shows he was a pre-war Territorial in Highland Cyclist Battalion, Kirkcaldy, before transferring to 16Bn HLI. Appears to have been KIA during a German attack involving mustard gas.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Dowie, William
Private

per CWGC website
Rank: Private, 8th Bn. Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
Service Number: S/12648
Date of Death: 30 June 1916 Age 25
Buried: ll.H.9 Maroeuil British Cemetery
Information: Son of James and Jane Dowie, North Queensferry

Note: there were several Dowie families in North Queensferry.
William was born in 1891 at NQ, the son of James Dowie and Jane (m.s. MacKenzie). He lived in the Brae and worked before the war as a labourer in one of the whinstone quarries in the village. He was unmarried. His brother Robert served in the same battalion and is also commemorated on the Memorial.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

per CWGC website
Name: William Guthrie Mill
Rank: Private, 1st/ 7th Bn. Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
Service Number: S/13414
Date of Death: 25 March 1918 Age 19
Memorial: Bay 9, Arras Memorial
Information: Son of Elizabeth Mill, of Seabank, North Queensferry, Fife, and the late Capt. James Guthrie Mill
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

William Morris

per CWGC
Name: W. Morris
Rank: Private, 1st / 5th Bn., Seaforth Highlanders
Service Number: S/41974
Date of Death: 12 October 1918 Age 19
Buried: A 3, Avesnes-le-Sec Communal Cemetery extension , France (Nord)
Information: Son of James F. Morris, of Helen Place, North Queensferry
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Duncan Fairgrieve S. Cruickshanks

Per Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Rank: Petty Officer, Royal Navy, HMS Rooke
Service Number: R/JX179892
Date of Death: 4 August 1943 age 33
Buried: Eastern Division Grave 6666 Dunfermline Cemetery
Information: Son of John and Whilemena Cruickshanks, husband of Euphemia Smith Cruickshanks of Dunfermline

HMS Rooke was the Rosyth Boom Defence Depot. Duncan actually served aboard the Gate Lifting Vessel HMS Bishopgate.

Census 1911 at New Buildings, North Queensferry, he appears to be child (2 months) born Inverkeithing, son of John (28) crane driver, Naval Base Works, born Resolis, Ross & Cromarty and Williamina (25) born Shotts, Lanarkshire
He went to sea in 1928 as a cabin boy in the tanker British Engineer and subsequently became a ship's cook. He entered the Royal Navy in 1939 and rapidly became a Petty Officer (Cook).

Duncan F.S. Cruickshanks married Euphemia Smith Allan at Inverkeithing in 1940. They subsequently had two sons. Duncan died of tuberculosis in Port Edgar RN Hospital.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Mitchell, George

per CWGC
Rank: Able Seaman, Royal Navy, HMS Kite
Service Number: D/JX 369732
Date of Death: 21 August 1944 Age 20
Memorial: Panel 87, Column 1, Plymouth Naval Memorial
Information: Son of William and Marjory Mitchell, North Queensferry

HMS Kite was a modified “Black Swan” class sloop.

per Wikipedia - On 20 August 1944 HMS Kite was escorting the aircraft carriers HMS Vindex and HMS Striker, which in turn were escorting convoy JW-59 to Northern Russia when the convoy was sighted in the Barents Sea by German aircraft. Soon a pack of U-boats attacked the convoy. On 21 August was hit by two torpedoes from U-344 and sank.
Of Kite's crew of 10 officers and 207 ratings, 60 survived the attack, but from the freezing Arctic water only 14 sailors were picked up alive by HMS Keppel. Five of the rescued died on board HMS Keppel leaving only nine to make it to shore.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Ronald Walter James Duff
Per Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Rank: Leading Airman, Royal Navy, HMS Daedalus
Service number: FX91971
Date of Death: 1 March 1943 age 19
Buried: Grave 112, Dunfermline, Douglas Bank
Information: Son of Ronald Thomas Hilliard Duff and Margery Gordon Duff, of North Queensferry

HMS Daedalus was RN Air Station, Lee-on-Solent and used as the main training base for the Fleet Air Arm.

His death is said to have been in a road accident in the Meriden area of Warwickshire
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Thomas Cunningham

per Commonwealth War Graves website
Name: Thomas Reid Cunningham
Rank: Private, 1st Bn., Royal Scots Fusiliers
Service Number: 3066984
Date of Death: 24 Sep 1944 Age 20
Buried: 7.K.2, Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma (Myanmar)
Information: Son of John and Cecelia Cunningham, of North Queensferry, Fife

Note: on the Memorial his regiment is given as Royal Scots, but it appears that this is an error in the casting.
He was born in Toronto, Ontario where his father had gone after WW1 to seek work. His father brought the family to North Queensferry just before WW2. Thomas was KIA and the family were told he was shot by a sniper.
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

Francis McGregor

Per Commonwealth War Grave Commission website
Rank: Flight Sergeant, RAF, 70 Squadron
Service Number: 551853
Date of Death: 11 February 1942 Age not mentioned
Memorial: Column 250, Alamein Memorial
Information: no more

70 Squadron was based in Egypt and Libya and operated Wellington bombers in support of 8th Army in the deserts of Egypt and Libya

Francis was born in North Queensferry in 1921, son of Francis McGregor, quarryman and Annie Dick McGregor (nee Bald).
He was the Wireless Operator of Wellington Z1166 "Oscar" which took off on the night of 9/10 February 1942 from LG142 (Gambut 2, Libya) to bomb Matruba (south of Derna). The aircraft failed to return and all the crew were posted "Missing".
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ferrydigger · Joined: 15 Nov 2014 Posts: 31

David Hardy
Master Mariner

Per Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Rank: Chief Officer, Merchant Navy, SS Crichtoun (Leith)
Date of Death: Between 18 and 19 March 1945 Age 26
Memorial: Panel 33, Tower Hill Memorial
Information: Son of James and Catherine M. Hardy, husband of Dorothy Hardy, Strathmiglo, Fife

National Archives BT 389/8/239 show vessel as of 1097 gross tons.

Per http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?9848
1125 grt steam cargo, single triple expansion. Master, Malcolmson, Torpedoed by German E-boats and sunk off Lowestoft near buoy 4Ar with loss of 22 of 25 aboard.
Official No 142015

http://www.ne-diary.bpears.org.uk/Inc/ISeq_36.html
'SS Crichtoun' (1,097t) on a voyage from Leith to London and 'SS Rogate' (2,871t) on a voyage from Sunderland to London, were probably the last two ships to be sunk by E-Boats, on the east coast route. They were both sunk off Lowestoft.

Scottish National War Memorial, Edinburgh Castle, records his place of birth as Kingskettle, Fife.
His parents ran the Post Office in North Queensferry
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Kenneth Morrison