William Montgomery

A Cumnock born man died early in the war according to this report from the Dundee Evening Telegraph of January 1915.

His service record survives
He joined the army at Glasgow on the 24th October 1895 aged 19. He was a labourer born in Old Cumnock.
The address on his service record was  87 Beechwood Cottages, Uphall Station, Linlithgowshire but I think this is a later address of his widow when she remarried.
He had a wife Annie Ross of Uphall Station and a daughter Margaret Angus Montgomery born 6th May 1914.
He had a brother Fergus of Hartlepool, a brother Robert in Saskatchewan Canada and a sister Maggie also in Saskatchewan. No parents recorded, so deceased.

Having a brother with the uncommon first name of Fergus helped me locate the family in the censuses.

His parents were William Montgomery,flesher (butcher) and Mary McBain and he was  born in Lugar on 6 Oct 1878.

In the 1881 census the family is at  462  New Row, Auchinleck and William is 2 years old so he wasn't as old as 19 when he enlisted in 1895,  he was only 16.

His widow's address was later given as 5 O'Connell St, Hawick. She was Annie Jessie Angus Graham and she was remarried to Bryce Ross in 1917.

Southern Reporter 10 December 1914

He was killed in action on 12 November 1914 and is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. He is not on Cumnock or Lugar War Memorials. He's on Hawick  War Memorial.


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