Great War Dundee
This is Dundee's story of those that served in the First World War, and of the people left at home
David Birrell
Military Information
- Date of enlistment:
- Place of enlistment: Cupar, Fife
- Service no: 138173
- Rank: Private
- Service Occupation:
- Awards:
- Regiment/Service: Machine Gun Corps
- Unit/Ship: 50th Company
- Place of Death: Germany
- Age at Death: 19
- Date of Death: 16.09.1918
- Burial Country: Germany
- Cemetery: Cologne Southern Cemetery
- Grave/Mem Ref no: XIV.B.11.
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 03.04.1899
- Place of Birth: Newburgh, Fife
- Address: 4 Balmore St, Dundee
- Occupation:
- Mother:
Mary Ann Birrell (nee Robertson)
- Father:
James Birrell
- Siblings:
William, James & Ann
- Spouse:
- Children:
More about David Birrell
138173 Pte David Birrell 50 Coy, Machine Gun Corps, Formerly S/19689, Gordon Highlanders)
Another Casualty – Not yet included on GWD RoH. Died of Wounds as a POW in Germany
David was born in Newburgh, Fife to parents James Birrell and Mary Ann Birrell, (nee Robertson), on 3rd April 1899. James was a Sett Maker employed in a quarry at Newburgh and the family were still resident at 127 High Street, Newburgh at the time of the 1911 Census. Sometime after that James secured employment with Dundee Council still as a Sett Maker so presumably involved in the making of Paving slabs for Dundee Streets.
David would have been a relatively late entrant to the War and was embodied into the Machine Gun Corps. He was serving with 50 Coy, Machine Gun Corps when he was wounded and captured by the Germans on 11 May 1918 and it appears he succumbed to those wounds or their effects on 16 Sept 1918 when in captivity near Coblenz, specifically in Hilfalas Bruderhaus zu Coblenz which was an eccliastical hospital the successor to which still exists in Coblenz today.
We know of the family’s link to Dundee but we can add some specific detail to this in that they were resident in the tenement block at 4 Balmore Street, Dundee. As to the wider family David had 3 siblings, 2 brothers, William and James and a sister Ann. By the time of the 1921 Census the family had consolidated their Dundee affiliation and were now resident in 3 Glebe Street with James still employed as a Sett Maker with the Town Council, William was a plumber in Caledon shipyard and Ann was a typist in a Dundee solicitor’s office.
Information and additional images researched and supplied by Jim Flood
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