WW1 Victory Medal (Single) - To Private JOHN ALEXANDER 6th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers, later 2nd Bn RSF – Wounded German Spring Offensive – INTERESTING social history – Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers, Erskine

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0055

WW1 Victory Medal (Single) - To Private JOHN ALEXANDER 6^th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers, later 2^nd Bn RSF – Wounded German Spring Offensive – INTERESTING social history – Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers, Erskine

You are looking at a Victory Medal (single medal only) awarded to Private 51298 JOHN ALEXANDER of the 6^th (Service) Battalion, then later, the 2^nd Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. 

The medal is inscribed ‘51298 PTE. J.ALEXANDER. R.S.FUS.’

JOHN ALEXANDER, or JOHN BROWN ALEXANDER as he is also known, the son of JAMES ALEXANDER and HELEN (formerly BROWN), was born c1888 in the village of Crossgates in Fife.

He enlisted into the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the 21^st of November 1914, with his medal record providing that the served with the 6^th Battalion of the regiment, followed by the 2^nd Battalion, but unfortunately, with no service record available, we don’t know when he moved from the one battalion to the other. 

The 6th (Service) Battalion of the RSF were formed in August 1914, and they landed in Boulogne on the 11^th of May 1915. They were at the Battle of Loos (September 1915) where they suffered heavy casualties. On the 7^th of May 1916 they amalgamated with the 7^th Battalion RSF to form the 6^th/7^th Battalion. In July 1918 they ceased to exist having been absorbed into the 18^th Battalion the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). 

The 2^nd Battalion of the RSF were in Gibraltar at the outbreak of WW1, but returned to England in the September, and then made their way to France and Belgium in the October where they were involved in the First Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Langemarck. In 1915 they were in battle at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert, Givenchy, and at the Battle of Loos, followed by the Battle of the Somme (1916), Arras and the Battle of Pilkem Ridge during the Third Battle of Ypres (1917), and the Battle of the Lys (1918).

There is no record of JOHN having received the 1914-15 Star that members of the 2^nd and 6^th Battalions would have been entitled to.

JOHN appears in the War Office Daily List No 5554 of the 1^st of May 1918, listed as wounded and entitled to wear the ‘Wound Stripe’, and with his next of kin address at the time recorded as Dumfries.

There is always a delay between a soldier’s appearance in the WO Daily List and the actual date of a soldier’s injury, and in trying to establish when JOHN ALEXANDER was wounded, the 1^st of May is key.

Within WO Daily List 5554 in which JOHN ALEXANDER appears, that was dated the 1^st of May 1918 but published on the 7^th of May, there is a large number of other Royal Scots Fusiliers’ soldiers listed in the ‘wounded’ section, and of these, at least three were further recorded as having been KIA, as follows:

    28623 JOHN DONNELLY – KIA 22nd March 1918

   24526 JAMES MCLURE – KIA 28th March 1918

   202782 JAMES TRINDER – KIA 22nd March 1918

All three soldiers were members of the 2^nd Battalion RSF.

Also, within the same WO Daily List (5554), there is a list of those RSF soldiers who were killed, and in almost all cases, when compared against the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, they were all found to be members of the 1^st Battalion of the regiment, with no members of the 2^nd or the 6^th Battalion mentioned, however, in addition to the WO Daily List (5554), within ‘The Scotsman’ newspaper dated the 1^st of May 1918, there is a further list of RSF soldiers who had been killed in action, and all but one of these men, when compared with the CWGC records, were found to be members of the 2^nd Battalion.

We know JOHN ALEXANDER was reported wounded in official WO records dated the 1^st of May 1918, the 3 x soldiers also reported wounded alongside him within the same ‘wounded’ section were later known to have been KIA on the 22^nd and 28^th of March that year, and those members of the RSF who were reported killed within the same WO Daily List, were all from the 1^st Battalion of the regiment, all KIA on the 28^th of March, and from the 2^nd Battalion, 16 x soldiers in total, all KIA over the 21^st to the 23^rd of March, apart from one soldier who was killed on the 28^th.

Based on all the available evidence, it is likely JOHN was serving with the 2^nd Battalion RSF and was wounded during the opening stages of the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, and probably over the period 21^st to the 23^rd of March, or at some point up to the 28^th.

The 2^nd Battalion war diary describes how, on the 21^st of March 1918, whilst the battalion was in the Etreilers area of France, around four miles east of the Somme, there was an intense enemy barrage that started at 4.40 am, followed by a strong attack that developed by 10 am, with British trenches captured and the battalion having to pull back, and they were eventually ordered to withdraw to Ham and Verlaine, southwest of their original position, and then make their way even further west to Esmery-Hallon, arriving there by the 24^th of March, and the diary went on to describe the continuing German offensive.

What the officer who wrote the 2^nd Battalion’s war diary was describing, was the opening days of the ‘German Spring Offensive’, that started on the 21^st of March 1918, with the intention of defeating the British and Commonwealth forces before they could be reinforced with troops from the United States.  

In relation to JOHN ALEXANDER’S injuries, within the available pension and medical records, there is one (Form S.B.36.), that lists his injuries as gunshot wound(s) to the knee, the chest and the face, and the same document provides two addresses, one at Glebe Square in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, and the other, a secondary address, at Erskine House Workshops, Bishopton, Renfrewshire, and it also provides that he was discharged from the army on the 6^th of December 1918 and his pension commenced the following day, the 7^th of December (SWB record suggests discharge on the 17^th March 1919.

Also, on the form mentioned, and on one other, there is reference to JOHN having served with the Highland Light Infantry, service number 35835, but most of the pension and medical records refer to him by his Royal Scots Fusiliers designation, service number 51298, so it has to be assumed that it was with the RSF that he sustained the injuries that led to him receiving his war related pension, and when we look at other members of the HLI identified from the Silver War Badge records, 35691 THOMAS BERRY, 35852 HUGH CURRIE, 35960 JAMES OPREY, 35933 P BARR and 36072 JOHN SOUTAR, they all appear to have been issued their service numbers prior to 1918, and we know JOHN ALEXANDER was serving with the RSF at this time, and so the reference to him being in the HLI cannot be corroborated in any other records and consideration has to be given to it having been made in error.  

Of further interest, is the address Erskine House Workshops, Bishopton, Renfrewshire – The ‘Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers’ was first created in 1916 and was to treat those servicemen who had suffered severe limb injuries in the war. It was located at Erskine House, and it became the centre for the design, manufacture and fitting of artificial limbs, however, a year later, in 1917, a workshop was created in the grounds of Erskine House, to assist severely disabled servicemen into future employment, by training them in things like woodworking, weaving, boot and basket making, hairdressing, and even less obvious trades such as beekeeping, and even kilt making, that led to some men being employed by military kilt suppliers in Scotland. 

JOHN ALEXANDER is listed at ‘The Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers’ in the 1921 Census of Scotland, with his employment provided as ‘Hospital – Erskine Workshops’ and his profession as ‘leatherwork’.....JOHN’S presence at the Erskine Hospital is strong evidence of his post-war rehabilitation and retraining following the serious wounds he sustained in France. 

Of note, whilst considering the 1921 Census of Scotland, is that JOHN’S wife JEMIMA was living with her father and her children at Globe Square at Hoddom and Ecclefechan.

In 1925, at the age of 38 according to the record, JOHN BROWN ALEXANDER (born Crossgates), a Postman by profession of Ecclefechan, was imprisoned at Maxwelltown Prison (now HM Prison Dumfries) in Kirkcudbrightshire, but the reason for his incarceration are not known.

He died in 1948, and his widow JEMIME ALEXANDER of Buck House, Ecclesfechan, Dumfries contacted the Ministry of Pensions with regard to her deceased husband’s pension.

SELLER NOTE = This medal was from a collection, 7 x medals in total, all awarded to soldiers with the surname ALEXANDER, and they were purchased in the believe that at least some would have been related to each other. From the research conducted, this has been found NOT to be the case, however, those seeking medals in the ALEXANDER surname should consider the others just in case they are connected in some way.

SELLER NOTE = Only very limited research has been conducted into this medal and its recipient.....Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during this research will be provided.