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

IN MEMORIAM.
trench warfare of Flanders during the spring of
that year, and was killed in action in the brave
assault on the German lines in a wood near
Hooge on 17 June 1915.
Gordon represented the best type of the
shrewd, level-headed farming class of the' North-
East of Scotland. He wanted education and he
came up to the University that he might get it
in the widest sense of the word. Over in France
he displayed the same thoroughness and con-
scientiousness, the same devotion to duty and
to the matter in hand as he had done at home.
He was only 19 when he died — his death has
been aptly described as " the fall of the un-
ripened fruit ".
WHYTE, JAMES : Lance-Corporal, 4th
Battalion Gordon Highlanders;
son of James Whyte,
crofter ; born Tarves,
3 May 1894. After
a highly successful
school record at Tarves
Public School, he
matriculated as an
Arts student in
October 191 2, with
a view to becoming
a teacher. Concur-
rently with his Uni-
versity course he
became a student at
the Training Centre and took a very active part
in the social side of the College, and in 191 3- 14
was vice-president of its Debating Society.
Enlisting in the University Company of the
4th Gordons in June 191 3, he immediately
entered into the spirit of the peace time train-
ing, and in August 19 14 was mobilized with his
unit. After a term of service at Bedford, where
he became a Lance-Corporal, he went to France
with the Battalion in February 19 15, sharing in
the severe routine trench work of that Spring.
He received a fatal wound during an attack in
which his Battalion took part near Ypres, 18
June 1915.
DUNCAN, ALEXANDER DAVID:
Lance-Sergeant, 4th Battalion Gordon
Highlanders ; son of Alexander Duncan,
farmer; born Ellon, 23 September 1893; edu-
cated at Gordon's College, Aberdeen ; gradu-
ated M.A., 1914. He
was well known and
highly esteemed among
his fellow-students for
his sterling character,
his sound clear think-
ing and his spirit of
good comradeship. It
is certain that by his
death his prospective
profession, the Ministry,
lost one who would have
carried on most worthily
its best traditions.
He joined the 4th Gordons in his school days,
entering the newly formed school section of " E "
Company, and later, after matriculating, he trans-
ferred to the University Company. On the out-
break of the war he was mobilized with his fellow-
students and Territorials, and while under training
at Bedford he became attached to the Machine
Gun Section. On the Battalion's proceeding to
France in February 191 5, he proved himself a
very efficient and level-headed member of his
section and was soon appointed a Lance-Sergeant.
In the heavy fighting in which the Battalion took
its full share on 17 June on the Menin Road
near Ypres, Duncan was mortally wounded, and
died a few days later at Wimereux, 25 June 1915.
Mc WILLI AM, ALFRED DAWSON:
Bombing Corporal, 1st Battalion Gordon
Highlanders; son of
James M c W i 1 1 i a m,
farmer, Garbity, Orton,
Morayshire ; born Bo-
harm, Banffshire, 24
April 1892. He re-
ceived his early educa-
tion at Keith Grammar
School and matricu-
lated in Agriculture in
1908. He attended
classes in the Univer-
sity for two years and
then returned home to
assist his father in the management
Shorthorn herd at Garbity.
of the