McPherson, Ian Charles
Rank: 2nd Lieutenant
Regiment: 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders
Biography: Son of Charles S. McPherson, LL.D., Rector, Banff Academy. Born Aberlour, 5 December 1893 ;educated at Banff Academy (of which he was Dux in 1911) and Aberdeen University; M.A., 1914; student in Medicine, 1912-14; Medallist in Physiology. He enlisted in the R.A.M.C., September 1914, was attached to the 44th Field Ambulance, and trained at Aldershot till December. In January 1915 he received a commission in the S.R.O. and was attached to the 3rd Gordons. Proceeding to the French Front in May, he joined the 2nd Battalion and proved his efficiency as a bombing officer. On 25 September, when the Battalion charged from their trench before Vermelles, he gallantly led the bombers as far as Hulluch on the third German line, where he fell during the German counter-attack in the afternoon. He had exceptional ability as a student and was very popular. Beneath an easy manner "there was a sternness and enthusiasm only evident to his best friends, perhaps, and when he was confronted by a difficult and dangerous task. It was that sternness and enthusiasm which made him the hero he was." So conspicuous was his bravery in his last fight that they wrote of him: "If ever a soldier deserved the Victoria Cross, he did; and had he lived he would have gained it. This is the opinion of his men and of the officers who saw him."
Date of Death: 25 September 1915
Burial Details: Name recorded on the Loos Memorial, Panel 115, Column 1.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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