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John McAvoy cap badgePrivate John McAvoy

8th (Service) Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
Service No: S/9873

John McAvoy grave

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Click here for a frameable A4 print
Personal details

Family Information

Son of John and Margaret McAvoy. Husband of Sarah McAvoy (10/07/1870- ) and father of 2 children, Alice Bruce McAvoy born 14/12/1912 and John McAvoy born 12/03/1914. From the 1891 Census - Address - 14 Trafalgar St, Bridgeton, Glasgow - John McAvoy aged 32, Margaret McAvoy aged 28, Joan McAvoy aged 8, John McAvoy aged 7, Margaret McAvoy aged 5. John's Pension was awarded to his wife Sarah on the 10/07/1916 (her 46th Birthday). Guardian Sister Frances Ames from Smyllum Orphanage, Lanark is also mentioned. Sarah remarried and became Sarah Glynne of 75 East Nelson St, Glasgow.

Born / Resided

Hamilton / 57 Whifflet St, Coatbridge

Died

Killed in Action on the 12/10/1915 near Zillebeke

Enlisted

Perth originally on the 26/10/1914

Employed

Carter

Age

31

Buried / Remembered

Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) (I. F. 15), West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Cemetery / Memorial Information

The commune of Zillebeke contains many Commonwealth cemeteries as the front line trenches ran through it during the greater part of the First World War. Railway Dugouts Cemetery is 2 Kms west of Zillebeke village, where the railway runs on an embankment overlooking a small farmstead, which was known to the troops as Transport Farm. The site of the cemetery was screened by slightly rising ground to the east, and burials began there in April 1915. They continued until the Armistice, especially in 1916 and 1917, when Advanced Dressing Stations were placed in the dugouts and the farm. They were made in small groups, without any definite arrangement and in the summer of 1917 a considerable number were obliterated by shell fire before they could be marked. The names "Railway Dugouts" and "Transport Farm" were both used for the cemetery. At the time of the Armistice, more than 1,700 graves in the cemetery were known and marked. Other graves were then brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries in the vicinity, and a number of the known graves destroyed by artillery fire were specially commemorated. The cemetery contains 2,459 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 430 of the burials are unidentified and 261 casualties are represented by special memorials. Other special memorials record the names of 72 casualties buried in Valley Cottages and Transport Farm Annexe Cemeteries whose graves were destroyed in later fighting.

Additional Information

The Battalion arrived at Boulogne on the 10/03/1915 and were part of the 26th Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division. John arrived in France on the 02/10/1915. He fell just 10 days later. John originally enlisted in the 8th (Service) Battalion Black Watch (6298) in Perth on the 26/10/1914 and was discharged as unfit due to varicose veins on his left leg on the 08/03/1915. He later re-joined the Battalion (see Attestation Papers x 6). John's Grave photo donated by Mick McCann at britishwargraves.co.uk. See photos for John's Medal Index Card, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, his CWGC Grave Registration x 2, his Headstone Report, his Attestation Papers x 6, Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm), John's Pension Records x 2 and the Black Watch Cap Badge.

Photos
John McAvoy Medal Index CardJohn McAvoy newspaper clippingJohn McAvoy newspaper clippingJohn McAvoy newspaper clippingJohn McAvoy remembered at homeJohn McAvoy remembered at homeJohn McAvoy remembered at homeJohn McAvoy remembered at homeJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photoJohn McAvoy additional photo

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