Private William A M Cameron of Scottish Rifles

[Cameronian Volunteer]

I cannot find the death of Private William A M Cameron of 5th Scottish Rifles (#7893 & #200764) on CWGC, SDGW or FMP Armed Forces Deaths, and yet he is clearly recorded as DoW on MIC and with date

of death 30.9.17 on the 14/15 Star roll.

He is also on the SWB roll, badge #200959. The SWB roll is dated 16.6.17 which is before the date of death recorded in 14/15 Star roll.

Is it possible that he died after being awarded the SWB and somehow this led to his omission from CWGC?

Any thoughts welcome.

Eddie

Edited 27 January , 2016 by Cameronian Volunteer

[Theletterwriter]

Eddie

I could not see him recorded on the Cameronians regimental Roll of Honour

Douglas

[MelPack]

He is also on the SWB roll, badge #200959. The SWB roll is dated 16.6.17 which is before the date of death recorded in 14/15 Star roll.

Eddie

The two records are not necessarily inconsistent. Your man could have easily died of wounds after his discharge and award of his SWB.

Have you checked the death records for Scotland?

[ralphjd]

Looks to me as if you have an IFTC soldier here, if we can only find his death entry anywhere, I cannot at present.Ralph.

[Cameronian Volunteer]

I did have a look at scotlandspeople.

There is no will, and, apart from the service returns, the only death recorded with a reasonable age and not a different middle initial was a 30 year old army pensioner from Dundee. Unfortunately the date of death given

was 21st July 1917.

He is, perhaps, a possibility as cause of death was Phthisis pulmonalis and both parents are recorded as deceased. Some room for error in the accuracy of the reporting. I will need to check whether this is a different individual.

Eddie

[MelPack]

Eddie

If there are no consistent death dates on Scotlandspeople, it is worth considering the possibility that your man could have been residing in England:

Deaths Dec 1917

Cameron William 33 Holbeck 9b 592

Cameron William 35 Samford 4a 970

[ss002d6252]

There's nothing in the soldiers effects, which would be consistent with a death after discharge.

Craig

[Cameronian Volunteer]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. I will keep looking for other evidence of his death.

Eddie

[barrieduncan]

Have you tried checking the newspaper archive on FMP in case an obituary notice was ever posted? I'm not sure if this would be accepted evidence on its own but might help track down a location etc.

Barrie

[Cameronian Volunteer]

Hi Barrie

At your suggestion I had a look at FMP newspaper archive but no sign of him there.

Working through the 14/15 Star rolls I came across two others with a similar record of death in the medal rolls. As their wills were on scotlandspeople CWGC accepted them when Terry Denham submitted the details, even although I could find no other evidence of death.

Hopefully when I establish details for the other soldiers recorded as William Cameron on the medal rolls for the Scottish Rifles I might come across something which gives me some clues to his background.

Eddie

[PaulC78]

Pension records on Fold3 identify him as William Alexander Munro Cameron, of 175 Comely Park Square, Denistown, Glasgow. There are five matches in the birth records on ScotlandsPeople so I can't be certain which one he is, but the most likely is the man born at Denistoun in 1893.

However, there is ample evidence on Ancestry and FMP that this man survived the war. In fact, he appears to have died at Southport (near to me!) on 19/8/1970. He is buried at Duke Street Cemetery in Southport, grave ref 19/877, so I will have a look for him next time I am there. Clearly not a non-com though.

As an aside, during an earlier search for this man I did find Pte William Cameron, 4349 Black Watch, who lived at Dundee and died post-discharge from tb on 21/7/1917. He did turn out to be a non-com and is currently in the system with CWGC.

[PaulC78]

Went out and had a look for the grave but unfortunately the plot has no headstone. It's the unmarked plot in the middle of this photo:

According to the burial records on FamilySearch, plot 19/877 contains the following:

Winifred Sinclair, age 69, buried 20/10/1964
Norah Cameron, age 78, buried 28/10/1968
William Archibald Munro Cameron, age 77, buried 21/8/1970

The death index gives William's date of birth as 8/3/1893.