Great War Dundee
This is Dundee's story of those that served in the First World War, and of the people left at home
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We need you to tell us more about the life and times of William McIntosh
William McIntosh
Military Information
- Date of enlistment:
- Place of enlistment: Inverness
- Service no: 1836
- Rank: Private
- Service Occupation:
- Awards:
- Regiment/Service: Cameron Highlanders
- Unit/Ship: 4th Battalion
- Place of Death: France
- Age at Death: 19
- Date of Death: 08.09.1915
- Burial Country: France
- Cemetery: Le Touret Memorial
- Grave/Mem Ref no: Panel 41 & 42
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: November 1895
- Place of Birth: 174 Hilltown, Dundee
- Address:
- Occupation: Grocers Assistant
- Mother:
Alexina McIntosh, nee Hutchison
- Father:
William McIntosh
- Siblings:
Lily, Charles & Violet
- Spouse:
- Children:
More about William McIntosh
For reasons unknown William was not listed on the original Dundee Roll of Honour. He has no known grave but is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial, France and on a family gravemarker in Dundee’s Eastern Cemetery.
William was a Dundee man born to parents William McIntosh and Alexina McIntosh nee Hutchison at 174 Hilltown Dundee. He is unfortunately one of those Dundee men not listed on the GWD RoH nor mentioned as being associated with Dundee on the CWGC website. This being the case he appears to have been omitted from Dundee Rolls of Honour over the years after the Great War
However it certainly seems he was not forgotten by those who loved and missed him, his parents and Grandparents and it was his Grandparents, who knowing he fell at Festubert in May 1915 and his body not being recovered did not have a known grave, had the presence of mind to commemorate him on their own family headstone in Eastern Cemetery Dundee. It would appear that Douglas Hutchison, William’s Grandfather, may have been something of a self made man having been a machinist when he married he became an independent furniture broker by the time William was born in 1895. The family grave plot in Eastern Cemetery is in a section where there are a large number of not insubstantial headstones and obelisks marking the final resting place of notable Dundonians and merchants perhaps supporting a view that whilst the family were by no means rich they may have been of independent albeit relatively modest means.
William has no available service record to peruse which makes things challenging to research his story. His birth and antecedents were relatively straightforward to uncover via Scotlandspeople.gov, which gives us an authoritative line from his Grandparents to his birth in November 1895, which would have made him 19 years old at the time of his being killed in action at Festubert in May 1915.
Before resorting to the Battalion War Diary for the period it struck me that there was reference to his mother being resident in Inverness on Williams Pension Record and that there was no obvious trace of them in Dundee after 1900 therefore a search of census records was undertaken and this successfully found the family resident in Busby Renfrewshire at the 1911 Census with William being the eldest of 4 children there being William at 15, Lilly at 12 yrs, Charles aged 4 and Violet aged 5 with the family residing at 56 James Place, Greenbank, Busby, (close to Castlemilk today), where Williams father is listed as a spirit salesman and William himself list as a Grocer’s Assistant. Hence we now know a little of William’s pre war story
So what can the War Diary tell us ?
In the period 17th /18th May the 1st / 4th Bn Cameron Highlanders advance to attack German Front Line trenches at Festubert from Rue L’ Epinette and succeeded in taking the trench. The ground and ditches being very wet and mostly underwater, the Bn lost most of their bombs and when the Germans counter attacked at Dawn on 18th the Camerons were unable to hold their new line and had to retire back to Rue L’Epinette. The casualty count for the Bn that day was 13 officers, (including their CO killed during the retirement), and 215 men, William amongst them. Having no known grave William is commemorated on the Memorial at Le Touret Panel 41/42 . Being one amongst almost 13000 names on that memorial perhaps his Grandfather in commemorating him on the family headstone here in Dundee possessed a degree of foresight in keeping his name alive in the city of his birth
Information and images researched and provided by Jim Flood
Can you tell us more about William McIntosh'? Some additional facts, a small story handed down through the family or perhaps a picture or an heirloom you can share online. Contact our curator...
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