In Memory of

ALEXANDER LAWRENCE

Captain
Adjt.
1st Bn., Gordon Highlanders
attd. (Adjt.) 10th Bn. , The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt.)
who died on
Tuesday 19th September 1916. Age 46.

Citation:
Additional Information:	Son of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Lawrence, of 7, Crookoness St., Macduff, Banffshire; husband of Jeannie McLauchlan Lawrence. Born at Turriff, Aberdeenshire.
Commemorative Information -
Cemetery:	HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE, Somme, France
Grave Reference/Panel Number:	IV. F. 16.
Location:	Mericourt-l'Abbe is a village approximately 19 kilometres north-east of Amiens and 10 kilometres south-west of Albert. Heilly Station Cemetery is about 2 kilometres south-west of Mericourt-l'Abbe, on the south side of the road to Corbie. -
Historical Information:	The 36th Casualty Clearing Station was at Heilly from April 1916. It was joined in May by the 38th, and in July by the 2/2nd London, but these hospitals had all moved on by early June 1917. The cemetery was begun in May 1916 and was used by the three medical units until April 1917. From March to May 1918, it was used by Australian units, and in the early autumn for further hospital burials when the 20th Casualty Clearing Station was there briefly in August and September 1918. The last burial was made in May 1919. There are now 2,890 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. Only 12 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 21 casualties whose graves in the cemetery could not be exactly located. The cemetery also contains 83 German graves. The burials in this cemetery were carried out under extreme pressure and many of the graves are either too close together to be marked individually, or they contain multiple burials. Some headstones carry as many as three sets of casualty details, and in these cases, regimental badges have had to be omitted. Instead, these badges, 117 in all, have been carved on a cloister wall on the north side of the cemetery. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens

Alexander son of Alexander Lawrence b 1842 d: Unknown & Ann Murdoch b: abt 1845 d: Unknown

Alexander was a career solder with 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders. He served on the Northwest Frontier, South Africa Boer War and the Western Front W.W.I

Birth: 06 Apr 1871 Scatterty, King Edward Parish, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Milit-Beg: In 1891 he enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders.
Note: In 1892 after a year of training he was posted to the 1st Battalion in India. He took part in the attack on Dargai Heights in 1897.
Note: 1900-1902 He served with the battalion in the Boer War and after returned to Scotland
Marriage: Jeannie McLauchlan
Note: In 1910 he was made Regimental Sergeant Major.
Note: In Aug 1914 his battalion was mobilized for World War I and he was commissioned in September 1914. He remained with his battalion in Belgium until November 1914 when he was severely wounded.
Note: In May 1915 after recovering, Alexander was made adjutant to the newly formed 10th Battalion, Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment and in June 1916 the battalion was sent to France.
Note: 15 September 1916 Alexander was mortally wounded at the Battle of Flers, on the Somme, France.
Death: 19 Sep 1916 France.
Burial: Mericourt L'Abbe, France.