Education & Career :

M.B. at Glasgow 1887

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• North West Frontier 1895-1947, Northern India.
• The Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, South Africa.
• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Accidents were a minor factor in the casualty list. Our definition is deaths resulting from activities that were not directly associated with 'active service'. We have excluded Naval Accidents which are seperately identified because of their numbers and impact. Many accidents involved the aviators, operating at the the limits of technology.

Detail :

Served on the N.W. Frontier 1897-98, South Africa 1899-1902. Died at Uddingston, Lanarkshire 24th Oct 1914. Despite his distinguished career and this date being within the bounds of WW1, it is not certain that Major Erskine was part of the B.E.F. serving in the earliest part of the war. It is not unfeasible that, due to his skills, that he was called on for duty, but the following accounts provide the detail of his untimely death.

Obituary "WILLIAM DOUGLAS ERSKINE, M.B., C.M.GLASG., UDDINGSTON. We regret to announce the death of Major (retired) W.D. Erskine, Royal Army Medical Corps, which occurred on 24th October. Major Erskine, who studied at the University of Glasgow, took the degrees of M.B., C.M., in 1887, and afterwards became house surgeon, first in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and, later, in the Royal Infirmary, Dundee. Entering the Army Medical Service, he had attained the rank of Major at the time of his retirement, which, until recently, was spent in Bournemouth. He returned a short time ago to Scotland, and took up residence at Uddingston, where his death, the result of an accident upon the railway line, took place at the age of 50 years."

Dundee Evening Telegraph & The Scotsman 26th October 1914 - "RETIRED ARMY DOCTOR KILLED. Shortly before noon on Saturday, just as the 10.55 Edinburgh express to Glasgow Central was approaching Uddingston passenger station, a military-looking gentleman, who was sitting on a seat at the extreme west end of the down platform, was seen to rise, and in some unexplained way he got on to the rails in front of the train as it dashed through. The unfortunate gentleman was cut to pieces. The body was later identified as that of Major (retired) W.D. Erskine, Royal Army Medical Corps, Junior United Service Club, aged 50 years, who came from Bournemouth recently and took up residence in 53 Kyle Park, Uddingston. Major Erskine graduated in Medicine at Glasgow University in 1887."

He left a widow.

Masonic :

Joined Grecia Lodge No. 1105 on 4th February 1908, but resigned after a few months on the 1st December 1908. Further joined Khartoum Lodge No. 2877 on 4th February 1909, again resigning after a few months on the 4th November 1909. It seems that he was perhaps posted temporarily to Cairo initially and then onto Khartoum.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley