William Bruce, Pte., S/40057, 1 Black Watch. Died of wounds, 31/03/1918. Where?

[rolt968]

Pte. William Bruce, S/40057, 1 Black Watch (formerly 4189, 1/7 Black Watch) died of wounds somewhere in the UK on 31 March 1918. He is buried in Laurencekirk Cemetery (Kincardineshire). No record (including the burial register, newspapers, Registers of Soldiers' Effects) says where.

 

His death is not registered in Scotland. The only death registration which I can find suggest that he died in Dover. (Second quarter of 1918 and the right age.) The next step would be to send for a copy of the death certificate. Can anyone suggest any other source I might try?

 

RM

Edited 12 June , 2021 by rolt968

[PRC]

CWGC have him as aged 29 and so on that basis you're only option in the General Registrars Index for England & Wales is the death registered in the Dover District. One potential scenario is that he died of his wounds on the journey back from France or shortly after arrival. If he was under medical supervision then unlikely to be any coroners inquest.

No obvious soldiers will or civil probate.

 

Have you found him on the relevant casualty list for his wounds? I can see a casualty list report on page 6 of The Scotsman dated May 14, 1918 where he is under the heading "Died of Wounds", so possibly there was no previous report of him being wounded. If there was a Wounded report then there is always the possiblility the investigation of other men on the same list may shed some light on when William might have received his fatal wounds. That in turn might narrow down the options - a man wounded on the 28th might only have just reached England by the 31st, a man wounded on the 21st is more likely to have been dispersed around the UK for treatment. It won't answer your question but may give a bit more reassurance that obtaining the death certificate is the way to go.

 

Location for Next of kin is given as Luthermuir in that list - CWGC additional information, which probably reflects the situation in the mid-1920's, shows the parents living at Laurencekirk. The original grave registration report shows that the grave was maintained by Mrs. Bruce of East Drumnagair, Marykirk - but Marykirk was subsequently crossed through and replaced with Laurencekirk.

 

He is remembered as I'm sure your aware on the memorial to the Marykirk Parishioners, Luthermuir.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/8688

A trawl through Google didn't bring up anyone specifically researching the war dead of Luthermuir in any great detail - that would have been another possibility.

 

May be a co-incidence but the Dundee Courier in the edition dated April 3rd, 1918 in the column "Latest Scottish Casualities", (page 3), under Died of Wounds has "Pte Bruce, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce, East Drunmagair, near Laurencekirk."

 

49 minutes ago, rolt968 said:

Pte. William Bruce, S/40057, 1 Black Watch (formerly 4189, 1/7 Black Watch)

 

CWGC actually have him as 7th Battalion - is that an error on their part?

 

Apologies if none of that helps,

Peter

[rolt968]

Many thanks Peter,

That cheers me up a lot in the sense that I have not missed something obvious!

 

There are two villages in Marykirk parish; Marykirk and Luthermuir.

 

I have all the information you have. I also have the cemetery burial register. The Courier of 3 April 1918 also has the Death Notice with the funeral information on another page. I even know the name of an illegitimate child who is mentioned but nor named, on the pension cards!

 

The battalion given by the CWGC confused me for a while since I wondered how he could start with a four digit TF serial number and then have a five digit serial number with an "S" prefix in 1/7 Black Watch. The explanation appears in the Medal Roll. He seems to have been in a group of men who were originally in 1/7 and were transferred to 1 Black Watch. (I went up a complete blind alley for a bit as there was a namesake also 4189, the same age, but in the London Scottish who was wounded and appears on 2 General Hospital List.)

 

He also made a will leaving everything to his mother. The last page is interesting:

 

RM

 

[rolt968]

Many thanks again, Peter,

The pdf death certificate arrived this morning (on time). It was him. He died of a gunshot wound to the the back, and tetanus in the Military Hospital, Dover Heights. It gives a generous amount of information in the Rank or Profession column.

 

Very much by the way.

I see that the death was certified by F J(?) Rawlinson FRCS and registered by D Riley of the Dover Heights Military Hospital. I should be able to find F J Rawlinson in the Medical Register but has anyone any thoughts about D Riley?

 

RM

[PRC]

Glad to hear it was the right man.

 

As there would be no specific expertise or even knowledge of the individual required in order to register the death, I would imagine they were either someone working in the Almoners' Office at the Hospital, or someone on the local admin side of the R.A.M.C. Undoubtedly there would have been a procedure that kicked in in the absense of a family member or friend to register the death.

 

On the civilian side there is no Riley associated with Dover on the British Red Cross site and no D. Riley associated with Dover any later than the 1891 Census of England & Wales. If it was R.A.M.C. then could very well be other ranks and home service only.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[TEW]

Apologies if you have this but he's on a FMP MH106 list admitted to 149 FA in 1918.

 

MH106/260 does not span two dates it is dated 24/3/1918.

TheGeneogist's casualty lists for UK ORs ceases 6/4/1918. Manually trawling the later NLS lists may pick him up. Although the above MH106 book should serve as a much better source for others wounded that day.

TEW

 

 

[rolt968]

55 minutes ago, TEW said:

Apologies if you have this but he's on a FMP MH106 list admitted to 149 FA in 1918.

 

MH106/260 does not span two dates it is dated 24/3/1918.

TheGeneogist's casualty lists for UK ORs ceases 6/4/1918. Manually trawling the later NLS lists may pick him up. Although the above MH106 book should serve as a much better source for others wounded that day.

TEW

 

 

Thank you very much. I haven't got that. I am very grateful.

 

I became distracted by finding his name-sake and number-sake in the London Scottish in MH106 in 1916 and now realise that having sorted out the chronological order of his serial numbers I didn't check the second on on FmP - very careless!

 

Interesting. That is the third successive man in my present research who has turned up in MH106.

 

His death appears in a casualty list in the Scotsman of 14 May 1918 which was probably the date (possibly -1) of the casualty list.

RM

[rolt968]

1 hour ago, PRC said:

Glad to hear it was the right man.

 

As there would be no specific expertise or even knowledge of the individual required in order to register the death, I would imagine they were either someone working in the Almoners' Office at the Hospital, or someone on the local admin side of the R.A.M.C. Undoubtedly there would have been a procedure that kicked in in the absense of a family member or friend to register the death.

 

On the civilian side there is no Riley associated with Dover on the British Red Cross site and no D. Riley associated with Dover any later than the 1891 Census of England & Wales. If it was R.A.M.C. then could very well be other ranks and home service only.

 

Cheers,

Peter

Many thanks, Peter.

 

Not so usually for an English death certificate it says in so many words that D Riley was present when William Bruce died. (it's more common on Scottish death certificates, I think.) Mind you in the case of hospitals I'm not quite sure what it actually means. We tend to picture someone sitting by the bed, but it could equally mean for example someone present and in charge of the ward.

 

RM