Muchty Remembers

Born: 14 December 1891, Upper Greens, Auchtermuchty. 

Son of James Ford and Janet McDougall, Upper Greens, Auchtermuchty.

Army Number: S/11579

Rank: Private

Regiment: B Company, 8th (Service) Battalion Royal Highlanders (The Black Watch).

Died: Killed in action, 15 July 1916. Aged 24.

Buried: No known grave. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. Pier and face 10A.

War Memorial. Parish Church Plaque. Parish Church Roll. Photograph.

 

Donald McDougall Ford, born 14 December 1891, was the son of James Ford, born 1868, maltman, and Janet McDougall, born 1865, Monimail. They were married on 16 November 1881 in Abdie Church, Perthshire.

In 1891 James Ford was a maltman, living in Upper Greens, Auchtermuchty, with his wife Janet, 35, and their children, Margaret 2, and George 1.

In 1901 James and Janet Ford were living in Upper Greens with their children Maggie, 12, George, 10, Donald, 9, Hellen, 4, Janet 2, and Hugh, 1.

In 1911 James Ford, 43, was a hospital attendant, living in a 2 roomed cottage in Gladgate, the first house after Pitmedden Wynd, with his wife Janet (McDougall) Ford, 45, mother of 10 surviving children, and their children George, 21, iron dresser, Ferlie & Son, Fife iron Works, Hellen, 15, linen factory worker, Janet, 13, Hugh 11, James 9, Douglas 7, Andrew, 3, and William 1, and Thomas McDougall Ford, 4, a nephew.

Maggie or Margaret, 22, was away from home as was Donald, 19, who does not appear in the 1911 Census in Scotland or England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 8th (Service) Battalion The Black Watch was mobilised for War on 10 May 1915 and landed at Boulogne. It fought at the Battle of Loos in September 1915.

Donald Ford was recruited with James Blyth, and six other Auchtermuchty men, on 29 May 1915. He was in the same Battalion as  James Blyth, killed 30 June 1916. He died 16 days later, on 15 July 1916, at the Battle of Delville Wood, during the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave.

Auchtermuchty. Mrs Ford, Gladgate, Auchtermuchty, the death of whose son was reported in the Fife News last week, has received two letters which she is like to cherish. The one is from Colonel Gordon, Black Watch, stating that her son; and the others of the regiment who fell, had upheld its highest traditions, and that nothing could have exceeded the courage and determination of all concerned. The other from Corporal Barclay, who had so feelingly sent her the original intimation. He assured her that her son died a hero's death, and that he secured a hero's grave at the village where the battle was fought. He mentioned that there is a movement on foot in the regiment to erect a memorial to the fallen there. Fife News, August 1916.