Mauchline Gorge graffiti

Husband likes to walk in the Mauchline Gorge and has his lunch at this spot. Today he snapped a piece of almost 100 year old graffiti in the soft sandstone.

The date differs by 5 days on the  Commonwealth War Graves Commission site

Ancestry provides his place of birth as Prestonpans. I can't find a match for him in the censuses. Nor does his service record survive. So was it a later tourist who commemorated George? It is a beautiful spot to remember a lost loved one.

Name: George Rowan
Birth Place:	Prestonpans, Midlothian
Death Date:	23 Nov 1917
Death Location:	France & Flanders
Enlistment Location:	Perth
Rank:	Private
Regiment:	Gordon Highlanders
Battalion:	6th Battalion
Number:	S/41186
Type of Casualty:	Killed in action
Theatre of War:	Western European Theatre

Update: after some judicious googling the mystery is solved, thanks to this entry about New Cumnock war memorials

George was born in 1898 in the Newcraighall area of Musselburgh, (about 5 miles from Prestonpans).
His father Walter Rowan a coal miner was a native of Dalmellington.

On Cumnock Connections tree

The other soldier who is remembered nearby is David Strickland