<\/a>Alexander MacDuff<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I wish to\u00a0\u00a0introduce you to a relative of mine whose name appears on the Scone War memorial.\u00a0 He was a second cousin of my Grandfather, and his name was Captain Alexander Macduff.\u00a0 Capt Macduff\u2019s father was also called Alexander Macduff, and he was the proprietor of Bonhard estate, and the County Councillor for Scone.\u00a0 Bonhard had belonged to the Macduffs since it was purchased from the Grant family in 1742.\u00a0 Each of the five lairds was called Alexander.\u00a0 Had he survived the war, Capt Macduff would have, in time, succeeded as the sixth Alexander Macduff of Bonhard.\u00a0 That was not to be.<\/p>\n

Young Alexander was born on 6^{th<\/sup> July 1884 at Bonhard.\u00a0 He had a typical childhood for someone of his background.\u00a0 He was sent away to school, first to prep at Cargilfield in Edinburgh and then to Winchester College in the south of England.\u00a0 He was the first of his family to be sent away to school.\u00a0 His father and grandfather had been schooled in Edinburgh, where the family also had a house.\u00a0 In 1902, Alexander went up to Oxford, to New College.\u00a0 He did not graduate from the university, though.\u00a0 In 1903 he had joined the University Volunteer Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and obviously took a liking to the military life.\u00a0 In 1904, Alexander applied to join the Army, and sat an exam for university candidates seeking a commission.\u00a0 He came top in his year and was commissioned into the 1st<\/sup> Battalion, The Queen\u2019s Own Cameron Highlanders on 19th<\/sup> April 1905.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t remain with the 1st<\/sup> Battalion long, though, and transferred to the 2nd<\/sup> Battalion in July 1905, aged 21. \u00a0The Second Battalion spent the decade before the war in service away from home, initially in South Africa (the Boer War had ended just three years earlier) and then in China and India.\u00a0 In August 1914, when war was declared, Alexander and his Battalion were in Poona, India.\u00a0 They left India in October 1914, arrived in England in November and were in France by 20th<\/sup> December.\u00a0 A European winter was a shock to the system for the officers and men of the 2nd<\/sup> Camerons after a decade in the sun!\u00a0 A book written about the \u201cScone War Dead\u201d after the war puts it well when it says that they were \u201cseverely tried by the climate\u201d. Alexander had been promoted to Captain in September 1914.\u00a0 He was a company commander, in charge of up to two hundred men.\u00a0 He appears to have epitomised the British Army officer of the period.\u00a0 He was brave, if not somewhat cavalier.\u00a0 The historian of his regiment describes him as \u201cthat gallant Cameron officer\u201d.\u00a0 He seems to have had scant regard for his own welfare, and certainly \u201cled from the front\u201d!\u00a0 He was wounded in the field at the battle of St Eloi in March 1915, but recovered quickly, and rejoined the fray immediately. \u00a0 On 22nd<\/sup> April 1915, the 2nd<\/sup> Camerons were sent in as reinforcements to the infamous Hill 60.\u00a0 This was the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres.\u00a0 Several days of intense fighting had wrested this important position from German control, and the Camerons were to assist in keeping hold of it.\u00a0 On 24th<\/sup> April 1915, Alexander appears to have been on Hill 60, close to the front trench, when a mine exploded.\u00a0 The mine created a crater forty feet deep.\u00a0 Alexander\u2019s death was instant.\u00a0 Like so many others, he has no grave.\u00a0 There would be little to place in it.\u00a0 The Camerons were withdrawn from Hill 60 on 28th<\/sup> April.\u00a0 They had lost two company commanders, a junior officer and a senior NCO.\u00a0 They had held Hill 60.\u00a0 It fell into enemy hands once again just a week after the Camerons left.\u00a0 Between 21st<\/sup> April and 18th<\/sup> May 1915, the second battalion suffered 671 casualties. \u00a0Alexander is commemorated in a number of places: at Cargilfield, at Winchester and at New College.\u00a0 He was also remembered by his friends and relations in Scone.\u00a0 He is commemorated at Scone Old, where his father was an elder.\u00a0 After the war, his father gifted the original Church House to the village in memory of his fallen son.\u00a0 It was opened in October 1920.\u00a0 For over sixty years, it served as a meeting place, and as the home of the beadle.\u00a0 That building has since been replaced by the 1980s church hall, but the new hall has a room, named the Macduff Room, on the wall of which hangs Alexander\u2019s picture.<\/p>\n}

Alexander is also commemorated on the Scone War Memorial, along with seventy others.\u00a0 I did not know Alexander, nor did I know anyone who knew him.\u00a0 I cannot tell you whether he told amusing anecdotes, or if he was a serious character, or whether he was kind, or abrasive…….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robert Macduff-Duncan<\/p>\n

June 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander MacDuff I wish to\u00a0\u00a0introduce you to a relative of mine whose name appears on the Scone War memorial.\u00a0 He was a second cousin of my Grandfather, and his name was Captain Alexander Macduff.\u00a0 Capt Macduff\u2019s father was also called Alexander Macduff, and he was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997,"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/551\/revisions\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sconeremembers.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}