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Auction: 23111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 723

Pair: Private A. Buchan, 6th/7th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, who died of wounds on the third day of the German Spring Offensive on 23 March 1918, having taken a piece of shrapnel to the lung

British War and Victory Medals (33493 Pte. A. Buchan. R. S. Fus.), good very fine (2)

Alexander Buchan was born at Dunfermline in 1897, the son of Alexander Buchan of 24 Links Cottages, Tayport, Fife. Apprenticed to a Baker when the war broke out Buchan attested at Tayport with the Royal Highlanders (Black Watch) on 4 February 1916. Mobilised the next month on 24 March 1916 with the 11th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. After a period with the 38th Training Reserve on 1 September 1916 before being transferred to the 3rd Battalion.

Entering the war with this unit on 2 December 1916 he was still with them when on 18 April 1917 he was wounded in the head. Taken to No. 26 General Hospital, Etaples Buchan was evacuated back to Britain, ending up at a Military Hospital in Bagthorpe, Nottingham. Buchan returned to duty in France, this time with the 6th/7th Regiment on 8 August 1917.

The front had been calm for some time when on 23 March 1918 the German Spring Offensive started. It started with an enormous artillery barrage before infiltrating attacks by specialist infantry units and finally full blown assaults by massed formations. Buchan was hit in the lung by shrapnel at some stage on the third day of fighting, taken to No. 56 Casualty Clearing Station there was nothing that could be done for him. He died that same day and is buried at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension; sold together with copied research including Commonwealth War Graves Certificate, service records and census data.

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Estimate
£100 to £140

Starting price
£70