L/Corpl. A. M. Catto – Gordon Hrs.

This may be Private Alexander Catto who served with the Gordon Highlanders, but it is very difficult to be sure. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record the deaths of 18 men with the surname Catto in the First World War, and only one Catto with the initial A, who also served in the Gordons, though as a Private. None of the 18 Cattos has an obvious connection with Kincardine O’Neil, and the identity of this soldier is far from certain. Aberdeenshire censuses are full of Cattos and contain several entries possibly relating to this person, but without more certain information about him it is useless to speculate. 

So he may possibly be Private Alexander Catto of the 4th Bn. Gordon Highlanders (no.202632), residing at Banchory at the time of enlistment. If so, he was killed in action on 23 April 1917 and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. The 4th Gordons had been deployed in and around Arras from about the beginning of that month, as part of the 154th Brigade of the 51st Highland Division. On the date of Catto’s death, they were involved, along with the 7th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, in an attack on Roeux involving an attempt to capture the chemical works there. They faced very heavy fire inflicting enormous casualties, vividly recorded in the battalion War Diary. Possibly this was how Private Alexander Catto lost his life, but is he the Catto in question?

Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
National Archives – War Diary of the 4th Gordon Highlanders – WO95/2886_2