401958 Sapper
289th Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers,
Age: 31
Date of Death: 3.1.18
Buried: Duhallow ADS Cemetery II.E.19
Family history: Husband of Mrs Elizabeth Ewing, Brodie Street, Carron Road, Falkirk. They had a daughter Isabella born on 28 March 1916.
He enlisted in the 2/7th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and later transferred to the Royal Engineers.
The action leading to his death
The 289th Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers, were under the 2nd Army from February 1917 to August 1919 and remained active to October 1919. Their role covered many areas from trench construction. repairing or building roads, trench railways, building bunkers or altering captured bunkers and dugouts and a myriad of other tasks. They worked in the forward or rear areas. These areas were also subject to constant shelling which accounted for many casualties as the men were caught out in the open or by targeted areas that the Germans knew were being worked. The rest camps were also subject to shelling.
(Linesman Map)
On 3 January 1918, David and his work crew were the victims of such shelling on their rest camp at Kempton Park located on the Pilkem Ridge. The wounded were taken to Duhallow Advance Dressing Station and those that died of their wounds were buried in the adjacent cemetery.
Medals Awarded
The British War Medal, Victory Medal.
