In Memory of

ADAM CRUICKSHANK

Private
16897
2nd Bn., Scots Guards
who died on
Sunday, 31st March 1918. Age 19.

Additional Information:

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Son of William and Barbara Cruickshank, of Douglas Buildings, Kirkhill, Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire.

He was born at Huntly and enlisted at Aberdeen. Died of Wounds, served France & Flanders.

Adam died in No 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Doullens due to wounds received during the German Spring Offensive which started on 21st March 1918. It was fought on the British held Arras sector of the front line.

Details in Huntly Express confirm family at Douglas Buildings and that Adam had been a farm servant.

Details from Service Record
Attested at Aberdeen 13 June 1917, age 19 yrs 49 days, 5ft 10 in. NOK Mr Wm Douglas, father, Douglas Buildings, Kirkhill, Kennethmont. Disembarked at Havre 30 Dec 1917, joined battalion in field 1 Feb 1917. Wounded in Action 30
March 1918, admitted to No 3 CSH, Doullens on same day with GSW (back, axilla), died same day. Served 294 days, of which 94 with BEF in France. War & Victory Medals issued and received by mother.

Army Returns : Died at No 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Doullens, France of wounds received in action.

No 3 CSH, Doullens
At Doullens the old fort, which housed the hospital, lay well apart from the town, and was surrounded by fields. It has from the beginning been used for hospital purposes alone, and there was no railway or military material in the vicinity

Service Notes
2nd Scots Guards

4/8/1914 Tower of London, London District.
Sept 1914 to 20th Bde 7th Division, at Lyndehurst.
7/10/1914 landed at Zeebrugge.
9/8/1915 to 3rd Guards Bde, Guards Division.
11/11/1918 in above at Maubeuge, France.

Commemorative Information

Cemetery: DOULLENS COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION No.1, Somme, France
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:		 VI. F. 18.
Location: Doullens is a town in the Department of the Somme, approximately 30 kilometres north of Amiens on the N25 road to Arras. The Communal Cemetery and Extensions lie on the eastern side of the town, about 270 metres south-east of the road to Arras.

Historical Information:

Headstone of Adam Cruickshank

 

 Doullens was Marshal Foch's Headquarters early in the War, and the scene of the Conference in March, 1918, after which he assumed command of the Allied armies on the Western front. From the summer of 1915 to March, 1916, it was a junction between the French Tenth Army on the Arras front and the British Third Army on the Somme. The Citadelle, overlooking the town from the South, was a French military hospital, and the railhead was used by both Armies. In March, 1916, the Arras front became British, and the 19th Casualty Clearing Station came to Doullens, followed by the 41st, the 35th and the 11th. By the end of 1916 these had given place to the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital and the 2/1st Northumbrian Casualty Clearing Station, the former of which remained in the town until June, 1918. From February, 1916, to April, 1918, the British medical units continued to bury in the French Extension (No.1) of the Communal Cemetery. In March and April, 1918, the German advance and the desperate fighting on this front threw a severe strain on the Canadian Stationary Hospital; the Extension was filled, and new ground was occupied (Extension No. 2) on the opposite side of the Communal Cemetery. There are now over 1,000, 1914-18 and 30, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Each of the Extensions curtains a War Cross, and Number 1 has a Great War Stone on the Eastern boundary.