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

IN MEMORIAM.
ing the rank of Sergeant he proceeded to France
with the Battalion in November 1914. Severely
wounded at N e u v e
Chapelle, he was in-
valided home, but
very soon after re-
covery he returned to
France. June 19 15
saw him commissioned
in the 6th Gordons
for his work on the
field. He was wounded
a second time during
the Somme offensive
in 1 91 6, and after a
brief spell in hospital
returned to the Front, where he served continu-
ously until the spring of 19 18. He was Captain
and Adjutant of his Battalion, when during the
German offensive of March he was wounded for
the third time, receiving mortal injuries to which
he succumbed on 31 March.
Suddenly launched on a career so very di-
vergent from the one he had in his mind to
adopt, he was not found wanting, but gained
distinction, receiving the Military Cross and in
King's Birthday Honours, 1918 — Bar to M.C.
McKENZIE, LESLIE : Lieutenant, Black
Watch ; son of the Rev. Alexander McKenzie ;
born Coull, 20 June
1893; educated
Gordon's College,
Aberdeen ; entered
Aberdeen University
as bursar, 1911;
Jenkyns Prize in Classi-
cal Philology, 1914 ;
M.A., 1915. A student
of the highest promise,
he was prevented by
the outbreak of war
from finishing his
Honours course in
Classics, but was granted the degree of M.A. in
absentia.
McKenzie was mobilized with " U " Company,
4th Gordon Highlanders, and on 1 January 19 15
was gazetted to the 8th Black Watch, with whom
he crossed to France in May. He was twice
severely wounded, but returned to the Front each
time and served until wounded at Arras so
severely that he died at Camieres on 2 April
1918.
There was nothing in "Homer" McKenzie
that was not genuine, and everything he did he
did with both hands. He never shirked spade
work, and his scholarship was all the more
brilliant for being sound. Ever unruffled in
spirit by the heaviest defeat, he must have de-
liberately " wangled " his third trip to France —
otherwise the effects of his wounds would have
kept him at home. Still young in years, he died
a man who confirmed among men the promise
of his youth.
JOHNSTON, JOHN: 2nd Lieutenant,
Royal Engineers ; son of William Johnston,
blacksmith ; born
Hatton of Fintray,
Aberdeenshire, 27
August 1893 ; student
in Arts, 1913-15.
Immediately on the
outbreak of hostilities
Johnston offered him-
self for service, but it
was in the second year
of the war that circum-
stances admitted of his
entering the Army, and
he became a Sapper,
R.E., August 191 5. His ardent wish was to go
on active service, but an appointment as drill
instructor caused another delay, and it was not
till the spring of 1918, shortly after he had been
commissioned in the R.E., that he reached the
Front. He took part in the heavy fighting in
March of that year, but his period of active service
was brief. He had been only five weeks abroad
when he was killed by a sniper, near Messines,
Flanders, 9 April 1918 — "a fearless, true-
hearted son of the north ".
CHRYSTALL, WILLIAM : Private, Elack
Watch ; son of James L. Chrystall, house-
painter; born Banchory, 23 May 1899 ; educated
Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen ; student in
Arts, 1915-17. He was a brilliant student, and
in his short University career gave promise of
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