Thomson, John MacLean
Rank: Sergeant
Regiment: 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders
Biography: Son of James G. Thomson, cabinetmaker, Fochabers; Born Fochabers, 2 September 1889; graduated M.A. in 1911. He was an excellent specimen of what used to be a common type of Scottish student who, faced by serious obstacles, contrived to make their way to a University and professional education. He studied at Aberdeen U.F. College from 1911-14. At the outbreak of war he was in charge of a Mission in Canada. Thomson was one of the earliest and the most eager of the band of volunteers who abandoned their studies to take up military service. As a sergeant, he displayed qualities which would, had he been spared, undoubtedly have led to a brilliant military career. He fell a victim to a sniper's bullet in the trenches near Ypres on 22 July 1915. A student of no mean attainments, he was also an athlete and in every sense a "sportsman " and a "good fellow". His enthusiasm found vent equally in Mission work in the slums of Aberdeen, on the football field, and in the trenches.
Date of Death: 22 July 1915
Burial Details: Name recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Panel 38, Column 5.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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