Observer hails war effort of dad and his three sons

Tribute was paid in the Observer to a Dunblane family’s proud military record. Mr and Mrs Martin, Braeport, had just learned their second son, Duncan, a lancecorporal in the Black Watch, was in hospital in Glasgow suffering from an ankle wound.

He was a reservist with Scottish Horse at the start of the war and had served in Gallipoli, Egypt, Salonica and France.

Before the war, he worked with Barty Solicitors. His father served with the Army Service Corp before discharge after a year. Eldest son Alex, in the United States when war broke out, joined Canadian Forces and served in France for six months. He suffered a serious head wound and after being discharged from the service return to US. The Observer said the family’s youngest son had just returned home ‘minus a leg’ which he lost while serving with the Black Watch during the heavy fighting in spring, 1918.

*** A former drapery department employee at Stirling Co-operative Society died on October 13, 1918, from wounds received in action. Pte William Cumming, A&SH, was 20 and his parents lived at 57 Port Street, Stirling. He was a member of Stirlingshire Territorials and mobilised with his battalion at the start of the war. He had been in France for 12 months when he was fatally wounded.

Official word was received of the death in action in France of Pte James Marshall, only son of Mrs Marshall, Army Ordnance Stores, Stirling, and nephew of Messrs W&T Marshall, electrical engineers, Stirling. The 28-year-old was a sculptor and joined the Army in 1916. He left a widow and two children who lived at 24 Cockburn Street, Falkirk.

*** Mr Peter Rutherford, gamekeeper, Polmaise, learned his son Peter, a private in the Cameron Highlanders, had died on wounds sustained in action in France. The 25-year-old enlisted in December, 1916, having himself worked as a gamekeeper on the Polmaise Estate.