Military Cross for Stirling cricketer

An officer with links to Blairlogie was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the field.

Capt AMP Lyle, who before the war lived in the village’s Powis House, played for Stirling Cricket Club.

He was an officer in the Scottish Horse and mobilised with his regiment in August 1914. He went through the Gallipoli Campaign and had been serving in Egypt.

He was heir to the sporting estate of Glen Delvine, Caputh on Tay.

Lt George Douglas Sempill, youngest son of the late former chief constable Semphill, Stirling, was reported to have been wounded in the fighting.

When war broke out, he was at St Andrew’s University studying for Church of Scotland ministry.

He enlisted in the Army and in February 1915 received a commission in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

The lieutenant served in Gallipoli and also France. He was a member of Stirling High FP Rugby Club.

Pte Alexander Aitken, A&SH, second son of the late Mrs Aitken, 23 Baker Street, Stirling, was injured in the arm and face after being struck by parts of a bomb.

He was recovering in a hospital in Lancashire.

Before enlisting in March 1916 Pte Aitken was employed as a grocer with Mr Robert Liddell, King Street, Stirling.

He had been in France for 18 months.

Major George Wilson, Royal Lancaster Regiment, who was from Cambuskenneth, had enjoyed a successful year in the Army having risen from the ranks.

He was at Buckingham Palace to receive from King George V the Distinguished Service Order. The Observer said he belonged to an “old Abbey family”.

Mrs George Ramsay, 5 William Place, Stirling, received a postcard from her husband, George, a private in the A&SH, explaining he was in hospital suffering from wounds to his arm.

Pte Ramsay was formerly a painter with Mr Walls, Maxwell Place, and enlisted in July, 1915. He had been in France for over a year.

He was the son of Mr James Ramsay, tinsmith, Lower Craigs.

Cpl Arthur Roberts, serving with the New Zealand contingent, was reported missing presumed killed on October 13, 1917.

The youngest son of Mr Roberts, publican, Stirling,he was 24 and served an apprenticeship as a millwright and worked with Mr McNaughton before emigrating six years earlier. When war broke out, he was working in Invercargill.

He had been in France for 12 months.

Gnr Smith G Graham, Royal Field Artillery, was reported to have been wounded in the hand.

His father, George, 15 Wallace Street, Stirling, was a traveller with Lawson’s Ltd.

Gnr Smith, aged 19, who also worked as a traveller for Lawson’s, joined the Army in February 1917 and had only been in France two weeks when he was wounded.

Mr John Oliver, clerk, Abbey Road Place, Stirling, received word his son William, a private in the Royal Army Medical Corp, was in hospital in England having been gassed while carrying wounded back to Allied lines. He formerly worked in Forth Cooperage.

On the homefront, the Observer reported that owing to a flood in the Forth the Cambuskenneth ferry had experienced difficulty crossing the river.

On one crossing, the boat was carried down the river and passengers had to land at the back of the old salt works in Abbey Road.

This was only accomplished with the help of several soldiers and a rope.