Pirie, Gilbert Alexander
Rank: Private
Regiment: 4th Battalion Cameron Highlanders
Biography: Son of Alexander Pirie, Huntly ; born there, 26 January 1895 ; educated at the Gordon Schools, Huntly, where he was an enthusiastic Boy Scout ; matriculated in Medicine in October 1914. On 10 December 1915 Pirie went to Inverness to enlist in the 3/4th Camerons and was then sent for training to Ripon, his abilities as a piper soon gaining him a place in the band. He was transferred to the 1/4th Camerons and on July 1916 landed in France, where he met an untimely death a few weeks later—near Bazentin-Le-Petit, 18 August 1916—on his way through the front line trenches to take a fallen comrade's place as a stretcher bearer. One of the many who laid down for posterity an unripened life, he was of gentle and modest demeanour, upright and honest in character; his friendship was not easily gained but was worth cultivating.
Date of Death: 18 August 1916
Burial Details: Name recorded on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 15 B.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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