Alexander Scott Murdoch
16th Battalion (Lothian Regiment), Royal Scots
Died 9 April 1917 age 23
Private A. Murdoch – Royal Scots
Alexander Scott Murdoch was the son of George and Mary Murdoch, born at Felix Cottage, Victoria Street, Dyce on Christmas Day 1893. The Felix Cottage connection went back at least as far as George and Mary’s marriage (according to the forms of the Free Church) in 1885. George, at the time of the birth, was a brewery-carter, native of Forgue; Mary came from Belhelvie. In 1901 the family were at Felix Cottage, and by this time Alexander was the youngest of five, having older brothers William (15) who was an apprentice engineer, James K. (14) described as a grocer, Andrew M. (9) who was at school, and sister Mary (13) also still at school.
It is not wholly clear how this particular soldier comes to be commemorated in Kincardine O’Neil. A tenuous connection to the parish may appear from the immediately preceding entry in the 1901 census. This records a household consisting of William F. Still, a joiner born Belhelvie (his age is illegible) and his wife Mary, aged 44. Mary was born in Kincardine O’Neil, daughter of Andrew and Mary Clark. This William was Alexander’s uncle – his mother’s brother. A search of the censuses shows what appears to be Mary’s family living at Raefield, Kincardine O’Neil in 1881 and then at Mill of Dyce in 1891.
In 1911 the Murdochs were still at Felix Cottage. By this time Andrew was a butcher and Alexander was a butcher’s messenger.
As a singed fragment of his Army Service Record shows, Alexander Murdoch, by then a Postman, joined the Royal Scots at Aberdeen just a month before his 22nd birthday on 2 December 1915 and became a signaller in “D” Coy. 16th Bn Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) (no. 27952), famously known as “McCrae’s Battalion”. His service record shows he was mobilised on 24 January 1916. He appears to have been part of the 46threinforcement to the 2nd Bn on 23 September 1916 and joined that battalion in the field on 24 October 1916.
Private Murdoch died aged 23 on 9 April 1917 – the first day of the Battle of Arras. British troops had succeeded in recovering part of the village of St Laurent-Blangy in March 1916. The rest was taken, more than a year later, on the day of Private Murdoch’s death.
He is buried or commemorated at Bailleul Road West Cemetery, St Laurent-Blangy, where one hundred casualties of the action on 9 April 1917 are buried. He is also commemorated on the Dyce War Memorial in Dyce Old Churchyard.
As at May 1920, it seems Private Murdoch’s father, who was named as his next of kin on enlistment, was no longer alive. The papers at that time note that his family consisted of his mother, brothers William living in Kilburn, James Keith at Woodbine Cottage, Dyce, Andrew Milne in Toronto and sister Mary in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire.
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Registers of births and marriages
Censuses 1881-1911
Army Service Record from British Army Service Records 1914-1920 at findmypast.co.uk
Jack Alexander: “Macrae’s Battalion” (Edinburgh 2003)
Aberdeen Press & Journal 21 April 1917
Aberdeen Weekly Journal 27 April 1917
Dyce War Memorial
www.findagrave.com
