Organisations > University of Aberdeen roll of service in the Great War, 1914-1919

IN MEMORIAM.
FRASER, THOMAS PEPPE : H.31.
Colonial Medical Service, West Africa ;
son of John Philip
Fraser, Art Master ;
born Aberdeen, 24
April 1880; educated
at Aberdeen Grammar
School; graduated
M.B., 1901 ; D.P.H.
(Camb.), 1912. He
held appointments as
Hospital Physician in
Denbigh, Grimsby,
Swansea and Sunder-
land, and for some
years practised in Lon-
don. Later he entered the Government service,
was appointed to the Gold Coast, and thence
transferred to Nigeria.
Fraser's war service was very brief, for he
was killed in the first month of the war, in a
reconnaissance, while serving with a British force
against the German colony of Togoland, 29
August 1 9 14 ; he was buried at Mora, Northern
Nigeria — the first of Alma's sons to fall in the
Great War.
ROBB,
Major,
ALEXANDER KIRKLAND:
Durham Light Infantry;
son of John Robb,
Lieut. -Colonel, I. M.S.;
born Poona, 26 August
1872 ; educated at
Aberdeen Grammar
School; student in
Arts, 1889-91 ; re-
ceived his professional
training at the Military
College, Sandhurst.
From there he passed
out first in 1893, win-
ning the sword of
honour. Gazetted in
2nd Battalion Durham
active service on the
the same year to the
Light Infantry, he sai
N.W. Frontier with the King's Own Yorkshire
L.I. He distinguished himself in various en-
gagements, was mentioned in dispatches, and
received the Tirah medal with two clasps. After
a term of duty in Burma, he rejoined his regi-
ment in Ireland; and before August 1914 was
acting as lecturer in military subjects at Durham
University, and Adjutant to the O.T.C. there.
Major Robb's battalion was sent to the Front
three weeks after the outbreak of war ; and it
was in their first engagement, at the Battle of the
Aisne, on the 20 September 19 14, that he fell.
Though severely wounded in a bayonet charge,
he continued to lead his men up to about
thirty yards from the enemy trenches. The
story of how he was brought in by a private of
his battalion does honour to his rescuer ; and
scarcely less to him, showing as it does the
devotion which he inspired. Major Robb died
in a hospital at Troyon the same night. He
was an officer whom his regiment had cause to
love and honour, a brave leader, and a courteous
and considerate friend.
MEARNS, WILLIAM MELLIS : Surgeon,
R.N. ; son of William Mearns, medical practi-
tioner, Gateshead-on-
T y n e ; born Gates-
head-on-Tyne, 7
December 1884 ; ma-
triculated in Medicine,
1902 ; M.B., 1908.
As a student Mearns
served in the Uni-
versity Volunteer
Company. He re-
ceived a Commission
as Surgeon in the
Royal Navy, 6 Nov.
1908, and served till
the outbreak of war in China, the Persian Gulf,
etc. He was appointed Medical Officer to
H.M.S. "Formidable," August 1914, and served
with the Home Fleet. The official record of his
death runs: "On 1 January 191 5 this ship was