WW1 Gordon Highlander details

[katman]

I am searching for any details on Gordon Highlander S/44720 Pte. Alexander/Alex Brymer, who enlisted 5th March 1918. I have his Silver Badge details, and Medal card, but no pension or other details. If he's the bloke I'm looking for, he lost his leg in action, and was a native of Dundee, but I need confirmation of this.
Jim

[StewL]

Hello Jim

Someone with more experience in this area should be along soon, who may be able to provide more information on your query.

[LesleyB]

Hi Katman
And welcone to Talking Scot.

THere appears to be an entry on Ancestry which may be of interest and woudl be worth trying to see; if you do not have a sub, you may be able to get access at your local library. Otherwise, it is possible to buy a pay-per-view sub, but that can work out expensisve if there are many pages to a document.

British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
Draft, Enlistment and Service
Name: Alexander Brymer
Birth: abt 1879
Military: 1915
Residence: Woodhill, Barry

Barry is just west of Dundee, and Woodhill looks to be a farm with a "big hoose" nearby of the same name, so probably part of an estate.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Currie]

Hello Jim,

For the next few days Ancestry has free access to surviving WW1 service records but not to the medal cards. This is possibly only available via the U.S. site. You need to register. http://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/family-mi ... b+Property

The Alexander Brymer from Woodhill was in the Royal Field Artillery (99278) and was married 1905 to a Helen Rattray (or similar) and had children Norah, David, and Alexander. I had a quick browse through the many papers there and there seems to be much about rate of pay and nothing about being wounded. I may have missed something.

As you probably know about two thirds of WW1 British Army service records were destroyed during WW2 bombing, and that’s the usual reason records can’t be found.

The Scotsman newspaper published lists of Scottish casualties, i.e. from Scottish regiments. They may have published lists of non Scottish casualties earlier in the war but I don’t think that continued for too long. After conscription was introduced in 1916 there was no choice of regiment and perhaps Scots in non Scottish regiments didn’t get a mention. The Scotsman lists often show the town of the next of kin, but this didn’t always happen.

Because newspaper print isn’t of a high quality the computer interpretation of the text can often be a bit of a jumble, and words that are in the newspaper don’t show up in the search results. I searched the Scotsman in the WW1 period for the surname and also for the number and didn’t find anything useful. I also tried Brimer.

All that turned up apart from a few notifications regarding officers was:
Dec 1915 – mention of a Watson Brymer in connection with Dundee Munitions Tribunal
Jan 1916 – mention of a Peter Brymer in connection with loss of a Dundee whaler.
Jan 1918 – gallantry award to a James Brymer, Chief Engineer, apparently of the steamship Chilka, of Glasgow.

The wartime Dundee Courier, available here, doesn’t seem to have anything worth mentioning. If there was a death notice published in that newspaper, or elsewhere, maybe his former regiment was mentioned.. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.u ... %2bcourier

Sorry I couldn’t be more useful.

All the best,
Alan

[katman]

Thanks for the heads up Alan and Lesley. I'll check out the links shortly.

Alexander was born January 1900 in Dundee.