Young, gifted and killed by an exploding shell

Under the heading “Talented Stirling youth killed,” the Observer reported on the death in action of Pte Willie Mackieson, who was 21 and serving with the A&SH.

Official notification of his death was sent to his father, Joseph, a hairdresser, of 6 Barnton Street.

A pal of Pte Mackieson (pictured) explained in a letter to Mr Mackieson, that Willie was one of two men killed when a shell exploded near them as they were carrying rations to his company.

Pte Mackieson joined the commercial and professional battalion of the Argylls in November 1915, and was sent to France in July of the following year.

He saw a “good deal of fighting” at the Somme and it was there he met his death.

Before joining up, he served an apprenticeship with Messrs Crawford and Fraser, architects, Stirling, later becoming under-assistant to Mr Baker in the art department at Stirling High School.

He gained an art bursary amounting to £25 over four years from the evening classes he attended, and became a student at Glasgow School of Art, where he went for first to third form in six months.

Pte Mackieson was an enthusiastic member of the Boy Scouts and awarded the King’s war scout badge for his voluntary service at the military installation at Forthside .

As a vocalist, he was well known for his impersonations of Harry Lauder, and a few weeks before his death he was reported to have sung some of his favourite Scots songs in a French village.