Douglas Masterton

Private Douglas Masterton

S/44773 Private. 1st Battalion. Gordon Highlanders

died 23rd October 1918


aged 18


Forfar Cemetery



Son of Charles Masterton and Douglas Livingstone
Dundee, Scotland

Genealogy

Douglas Masterton was born in Kelvin, Glasgow, Lanarkshire in 1890, the fifth of six children born to Charles Smith Masterton, a railway porter who later became a journeyman plasterer, and Douglas Livingstone who had married in 1891 in Dundee. His mother Douglas died in 1901. His elder brother, John Douglas Masterton, had also been killed in the war just a few months earlier.

Further details of Douglas, and the extended family of Mastertons from the Forfar branch can be found at the following link.

His War

Douglas was recruited into the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, on 15th March 1918, 38 days after his eighteenth birthday. He was a labourer, living at 8 Tannadice Street, Dundee.

The 1st Gordons were in France as early as 14 August 1914 with the British Expeditionary Force and took heavy casualties at Le Cateau. From 19 October 1915 it was part of the 76th Brigade under command of the 3rd Division. The Division fought in all the major battles on the Western Front and was selected to advance into Germany as part of the Occupation Force.

Douglas Masterton died of wounds in the 4th London General Hospital, Denmark Hill, London on 23rd October 1918. So far, it has not been possible to determine whether he was wounded in training, or had been repatriated from the front line.

Douglas is buried in Forfar Cemetery.

The beneficiary of his will was his aunt Betsy Masterton, suggesting his father had died by then as well as his mother. She was living with the family in the 1911 census.

Other Sources

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