Smurthwaite, Donald Stuart Stirling

Second Lieutenant

‘A’ Company, 1st Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)

Killed in action on Monday, 26 October 1914 (aged 20)

No known grave

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium (Panel 37)

Westminster School London

BIOGRAPHY

Donald Stuart Stirling Smurthwaite was born on 12 June 1894 and he was the only son of Baynes Wright Smurthwaite and Charlotte Lillias Smurthwaite (nee Stirling) who had three children:

Mary Duff

Donald Stuart Stirling

Jean Margaret Hamilton

Baynes Wright Smurthwaite was a solicitor and he died in 1912 (aged 54).

Donald Stuart Stirling Smurthwaite attended Westminster School in London as a boarder and from there he went to the Royal Military College Sandhurst as a Prize Cadet.  He graduated from Sandhurst at the top of the list and was gazetted to the Black Watch on 12 August 1914.  His commission was reported on Page 6304 of the London Gazette, 11 August 1914.  He also qualified as an interpreter in French.

Second Lieutenant Donald Stuart Stirling Smurthwaite served with the 1^st Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) and he was 20 when he was killed in action on 26 October 1914.

At the time of Donald Stuart Stirling Smurthwaite’s death it was reported in the Press that he was a nephew of Thomas A. Warnock JP of Portaferry.

Second Lieutenant Donald Stuart Stirling Smurthwaite has no known grave and he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium and in Westminster School London.