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Having found out details of my great-great uncle William MacDuff’s war service, I was now keen to find out more information about how he had died. The 11^th Border Regiment war diary entry for the day was very brief; more recent histories of his regiment (The Border Regiment in the Great War) and battalion (‘The Lonsdales’ by Colin Bardgett) shed no further light on the action either. Everything I read indicated that the Passchendaele offensive had ended on 10^th November 1917 when the Canadians captured the village, so why had William been killed in action in this area?
An obituary in the local paper where William’s family lived also added some more details – it stated that he had been a bank clerk in Scotland before securing a similar position in a bank in Canada. It also said that he had been instantaneously killed by a machine gun bullet whilst leading his platoon in an attack. It named the bank he had worked for – a quick Google search later and I found that they still existed and even had an archive department. I sent them an email and was amazed when they replied stating they had some information about him. I eagerly awaited their package in the post. When it arrived it contained details of William’s employment with the bank, with the explanation that apparently Canadian banks actively recruited from Scotland well into the 1950s due to similarities of the banking systems, the Scots’ work ethic, and their ability to deal with the harsh Canadian winters! Also in the package was a picture of William in his military uniform. Being able to see what he looked like really brought his story to life.

Still trying to track down further details of the action in which William died, the breakthrough came when I returned to the National Archives to examine the Brigade and Divisional records. The Lonsdales had been part of the 97^th Brigade, 32^nd Division, and both files contained extensive records and maps of the information. It transpired that William’s battalion had been part of an attack to consolidate the position north of Passchendaele and capture the remaining high ground on the ridge. The attack had been made on a moonlit night; trying to achieve the element of surprise, the troops advanced without any artillery support until zero +8 minutes. However soon after the attack started the German machine guns opened fire causing many casualties – possibly including William. Although the Battalion succeeded in reaching their objective, they suffered high losses, including most of their officers, and were driven back by German counter-attacks. A final discovery was an aerial photo of the area taken shortly before the attack, showing a morass of mud and shell holes.

Soon after this discovery I found out that a PhD student at the University of Birmingham was writing his thesis on this very action. He very kindly gave me a copy of his thesis once it had been marked, and from this and further conversations with him, I learned that this had actually been a fairly significant action, involving ten battalions from two divisions. The whole attack had failed, and over 1,600 casualties were suffered by the British. However despite these losses, the attack has effectively been written out of the official history of the war. On a more general note his thesis is an excellent account of the amount of detail and effort that went into preparing for an attack of this kind, and I learned a great deal from it.

In November 2011 I travelled to Ypres for Armistice Day. For me it was a very poignant journey – over the course of three years I had gone from finding out I had a relative who had been killed in the war, to uncovering full details of his service, putting a face to the name, and ultimately learning about how and where he had lost his life. I visited Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, where William is commemorated along with nearly 35,000 other servicemen whose bodies were never found, to pay my respects.

Hopefully this is not the end of William’s story, and I can now make sure that my family does not forget him. During my search for William I have learned a great deal about researching soldiers from the war, and have ultimately developed a deep-rooted interest in remembrance and ensuring that these men who laid down their lives are never forgotten.

It was only in early 2008 that I found out that I had relatives who had served in World War One. After my grandmother died I belated decided to look at my family tree. My mother dug out a tattered photocopy of a tree, faded and barely readable. It transpired that my great uncle had put this information together, diligently researching his ancestry in the days before the internet. One part that I could read immediately stood out – “William Brown MacDuff, b. 1893, d. Gt War 1917”. I was amazed – despite my interest in history I had never thought to ask, and no one had ever thought to tell me, that we had ancestors who had served in the war, let alone who had died.

I bombarded my mother with questions – she vaguely recalled that her Grandmother’s brother had been killed, but also that her grandfather had been in the army, and her great-grandfather was referred to as ‘the Colonel’. Stunned into action, I immediately set out to find out about these men.

My first port of call for William MacDuff was of course the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I quickly found his entry. “Enlisted in 1915 in Canada, Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Gazetted to Black Watch 1917.” This immediately raised more questions – what was he doing in Canada? If he had been gazetted to the Black Watch, why was he with the Border Regiment when he died?

His medal index card gave a bit more information – it showed he had risen through the ranks and been commissioned on 28^th August 1917, and was killed in action on 2^nd December 1917. Shortly after I discovered that Canadian attestation records are available online, and looked up William’s papers. These told me that William had been a bank clerk; he had enlisted in June 1915 in Calgary, three days after his 22^nd birthday, and had experience in the Territorial Force. I ordered his full service record from the Canadian archive and from these papers learned that he had arrived in England in 1916, where he was attached to the Pay Office (not surprising really given his banking experience). Perhaps disillusioned with his non-combatant role, he applied for a commission in the British Army, and embarked on officer training in May 1917.

Searching the London Gazette helped me to understand the discrepancies over which regiment he had served with. After his officer training he was commissioned to the 5^th Battalion, Border Regiment. However, it appears he never joined them. Instead he was attached to the 11^th Battalion (The Lonsdales), and in November he was commissioned to the Royal Highlanders (The Black Watch).

I also visited The National Archives and looked at William’s British service record and the war diary for the 11^th Border Regiment. His service record showed he stated a preference for joining the Black Watch – I later learned his father served as a Lieutenant Colonel with the regiment. However he never got his wish of joining the regiment. The war diary entry for the day William died was frustratingly brief: “The battalion made a night attack on the German positions south of Westroosebeek in conjunction with remaining units of 97^th Infantry Brigade and two units of the 96^th Infantry Brigade. Zero hour 1.55am.The battalion took its objectives but the two leapfrogging companies fell back before dawn onto subsidiary objectives which were held all day until the enemy launched a counterattack at 4.30pm and the battalion fell back onto the old line. Casualties for the whole action [included] 2^nd Lt MacDuff killed.”

However I still wanted to know more about William’s life, and ultimately his death.