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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: Forfarian on Monday 20 November 17 21:58 GMT (UK)
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I am helping a friend who wants to know the name of her great-aunt's fiance who was killed in the First World War. She knows that he was a teacher in a school in Edinburgh before the War, and that he was an officer in the Royal Scots.
Can anyone point me at any lists of officers in the Royal Scots who were killed in 1914-1919 please?
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A search on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website turns up 11,578 soldiers of the Royal Scots!
(Advanced search with regiment set and WW1 dead)
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23 x Majors
9 x Lt. Colonel
109 x Captains
153 x Lieutenant
6 x 2nd Lieutenant
and probably some ranks I have missed?
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Thank you. That does look a bit like a needle in a haystack! I'll pass it on to my friend.
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Forfarian,
This may have narrowed things down...
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+edinburgh
or this...
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+teacher+
There's a mention of a Teacher Norman McDonald (seem to be all the same person)? but I can't make out the meaning of the wording although there's no mention of 'Officer' :-\
Annie
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Would there be any records of teachers employment records which could be cross checked with Annie's finds? Newspaper reports?
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http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+edinburgh
Thanks, Annie.
However once I have refined the dates to 1914-1919 and eliminated those in the Royal Scots Greys and those on the ship Royal Scot, there were only 8 left, none of whom seem to fit (2 from Manchester, 2 other ranks, one too late, one too early, one a police instructor and one who wasn't killed in 1914-1918). :(
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+teacher+
There's a mention of a Teacher Norman McDonald (seem to be all the same person)?
This looks like someone whose full name is Norman McDonald Teacher, rather than a teacher named Norman McDonald. :(
Back to the drawing board.
My friend thinks the man in question was a Major but a search on CWGC didn't turn up any majors in the Royal Scots.
I am hampered by not understanding the differences between different regiments/battalions/units of the army - Royal Scots, Royal Scots Greys, Royal Scots Fusiliers, Royal Scots Rifles and other variations on the theme :-[
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Would there be any records of teachers employment records which could be cross checked with Annie's finds? Newspaper reports?
Probably, but my friend doesn't know which school he taught at, and there are an awful lot of schools in Edinburgh!
I've tried various newspapers in vain for an announcement of the engagement to Jessie Ann Nairn. She was from Stirling and it is possible that there might be something in the Stirling Observer - I haven't managed to find that online yet.
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Using Advanced Search on CWGC; Regiment = Royal Scots; WW1; Rank = Major
(Name, Battalion, Date of Death, Residence from Notes)
Major John Wood Adams, 6th Bn, 3/9/17, of Portobello
Major F Anderson, 2nd Bn & 12th Bn, 28/1/17
Major John Russel Bruce, 15th Bn, 1/7/16, of Edinburgh
Major James Chalmers, 5th Bn, 23/3/18
Major George Deas Cowan, 9th Bn, 23/4/18 (Wife mentioned)
Major John Douglas Dawson, 7th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major William Herbert Evans, 11th Bn, 14/8/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major James Ferguson, 9th Bn, 55/7/16, of Kinmundy, Aberdeenshire
Major Robert Finlay Gerrard, 4th Bn, 18/4/17, of Edinburgh
Major J Gray, 1st/4th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major A J Gray, 10th Bn, 7/11/17, Native of Lochee, Dundee
Major James Dundas Lawrie Hamilton, 7th Bn, 22/5/15, of Edinburgh
Major James Norman Henderson, 1st/4th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major George Denis MacPherson, 13th Bn, 26/9/15, of Blairgowie, Perthshire
Major A A C Nelson, 2nd/10th Bn, 20/5/16
Major N M Ross, 18th Bn, 5/1/20
Major A W Sanderson, 7th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major J C M Scott, 1st Bn, 29/3/17
Major Thomas Stewart, 8th Bn & 5th/6th Bn, 12/9/17, of Edinburgh
Major Harris Lawrence Stocks, 15th Bn, 1/7/16, of Kirkaldy, son of Provost
Major David Mitchell Tomlinson, 13th Bn, 13/5/16, parents in New Zealand
Major Alexander White, 5th Bn, 9/9/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major H F M Worthington-Wilmer, 2nd Bn & 13th Bn, 11/5/16
As you can see, 7 of them mention a wife. That leaves 16! ;D
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Many thanks, KGarrad, that is much better! I tried to do the same search (major, Royal Scots, WW1) but it came up with no results. No idea why!
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Many thanks, KGarrad, that is much better! I tried to do the same search (major, Royal Scots, WW1) but it came up with no results. No idea why!
I think omitting WW1 as there's the column on left to tick years, which I hadn't done of course ::)
Annie
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I did the search again, just to prove to myself what I had done.
Same results: 23 records found ;D
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Bizarre. That's exactly the search I did.
I re-ran it just now, and again got no results. Then I cleared it and did it again and got 23 results.
What did we do to waste time before we had computers? ;)
Many thanks for your help.
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Did you know that you can export your search results to a .csv file (for reading in Excel)?
I found it easier to read that way - but then I work with Excel every day! ;D
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I did know that in relation to various other sites, but I've never had occasion to do so with CWGC. Thank you for the tip, which I shall bear in mind.
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23 x Majors
9 x Lt. Colonel
109 x Captains
153 x Lieutenant
6 x 2nd Lieutenant
and probably some ranks I have missed?
I see that the thread has concentrated on Majors - but there is something seriously wrong with these figures - 2nd Lieutenant was probably the most dangerous rank in the army, there must have been many more casuatlies on that rank. When I did the search I found 282.
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23 x Majors
9 x Lt. Colonel
109 x Captains
153 x Lieutenant
6 x 2nd Lieutenant
and probably some ranks I have missed?
I see that the thread has concentrated on Majors - but there is something seriously wrong with these figures - 2nd Lieutenant was probably the most dangerous rank in the army, there must have been many more casuatlies on that rank. When I did the search I found 282.
See reply #7:
My friend thinks the man in question was a Major but a search on CWGC didn't turn up any majors in the Royal Scots.