Skinner, Alexander
Rank: Sergeant
Regiment: 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders
Biography: Son of John Skinner, roadman ; born Dingwall, 21 July 1889 ; educated Dingwall Academy; Glasgow Technical College ; Aberdeen Provincial Training College; Aberdeen University (Arts and Science, 1909-11). He joined "U" Coy., Gordon Highlanders while in Aberdeen. On being appointed assistant master and manual instructor of the Supplementary School, Dumbarton, he continued a member of the University Company. In August 1914 he was in camp with the unit at Tain, and proceeded to the war station at Bedford from whence he went to France in February 1915. He was killed in the trenches in Flanders on 22 April 1915 by a rifle bullet which came from an enfilading flank 900 yards away. Alick Skinner was an excellent stamp of Highlander. "Your son", an officer wrote to the widowed mother, "was one of the finest men. He was a splendid soldier . . . so reliable and could ill be spared."
Date of Death: 22 April 1915
Burial Details: Buried at Wytschaete Military Cemetery, Plot 4, Row C, Grave 7.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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