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Alexander Robert Taylor cap badgeLance Corporal Alexander Robert Taylor

2nd Battalion Cameron Highlanders
Service No: 7485

Alexander Robert Taylor grave

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Click here for a frameable A4 print
Personal details

Family Information

Alexander's stepmother Mrs Stewart wrote for news of him. SEE THE ARMY REGISTER OF SOLDIERS EFFECTS WHICH STATES ALEXANDER (ROBERT) TAYLOR WAS AN ALIAS FOR ALEXANDER STEWART.

Born / Resided

Coatbridge / 7 Dixon Terrace, Calder

Died

Killed in Action on the 21/04/1915 by shellfire near Ypres

Enlisted

Glasgow 1906

Employed

British Tube Works

Age

(No data. If you have details, please add a comment)

Buried / Remembered

Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm V. A. 6), 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

Alexander and the Battalion were in Ghorpuri Barracks, Poona, India in August 1914. On the 14/10/1914 they departed on troop ship "Saturnia", landing at Devonport on the 16th November. They were part of the 81st Brigade, 27th Division and arrived at Le Havre on the 20/12/1914. THIS IS THE ONLY MATCH FOR ALEXANDER. He is listed as ROYAL IRISH FUSILIERS on the Coatbridge Memorial. Alexander was Killed in Action by shellfire. He died during a failed attempt by the British to capture the tactically significant Hill 60 which was 3 miles south of Ypres and overlooked the British positions. Hill 60 had been taken by the Germans in November 1914. The day after Alexander fell the Division were involved in the Battle of Grafenstafel, 22nd - 23rd April 1915. This was part of the Battles of Ypres (Second Ypres), 22nd April - 25th May 1915: Often known as the Second Battle of Ypres, this began with surprise German attack using poison gas against French North African forces holding defences near Ypres. Both sides rushed reserves in and the Battle developed into the second epic in that area. British Second Army withdraws to a shorter line near Ypres. See photos for Alexander'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, Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) and the Cameron Highlanders Cap Badge.

Photos
Alexander Robert Taylor Medal Index CardAlexander Robert Taylor newspaper clippingAlexander Robert Taylor newspaper clippingAlexander Robert Taylor newspaper clippingAlexander Robert Taylor remembered at homeAlexander Robert Taylor remembered at homeAlexander Robert Taylor remembered at homeAlexander Robert Taylor remembered at homeAlexander Robert Taylor additional photo

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