In Memory ofALEXANDER MACDONALDPrivate
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Additional Information: Click on images to view details
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Son of Alexander and Mary Melville Finlayson Macdonald, of Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire. Mary Finlayson died in July 1928 and is buried in Kennethmont CY (Old). Alexander MacDonald died aged 93. There is no headstone. Alexander MacDonald, Jnr was born 5th January 1912 at Muthil, Perthshire, the second eldest of a family of ten. His parents both came from this area. He had six brothers and three sisters. He joined the army and served as a regular soldier with 2nd Batt, The Gordon Highlanders.He served in India. |
Commemorative Information
| Memorial: | KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY, Thailand |
| Grave
Reference/ Panel Number: |
Sp. Mem. 9. M. 4. |
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Location:
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Kanchanaburi is 129 kilometres west-north-west of Bangkok. Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is situated in the north eastern part of the town along Saeng Chuto Road, Within the entrance building to Kanchanaburi War Cemetery will be found the Kanchanaburi Memorial. It is in the form of a bronze memorial tablet recording the names of 11 soldiers of the army of undivided India, buried in Muslim civil cemeteries in Thailand, whose graves are unmaintainable. |
| Historical Information: | The cemetery is only a short distance from the site of the former "Kanburi" Prisoner-of-War Base Camp, through which passed most of the prisoners on their way to other camps, and is the largest of the three war cemeteries (two in Thailand and one in Burma) on the notorious Burma-Siam railway. It was created by the Army Graves Service who transferred to it all graves, save American graves, from camp burial grounds and solitary sites along the southern half of the railway from Bangkok to Nieke. Most of the base camps and hospitals were in this area and the total number of burials in the cemetery is nearly 7,000. This figure includes 300 men who died during an epidemic at Nieke Camp and were cremated, whose ashes now rest in two graves in the cemetery. Their names are commemorated on Portland stone panels in the shelter pavilion which stands at the end of one of the two main avenues, facing the Cross of Sacrifice at the intersection of the avenues and the Stone of Remembrance at the opposite end. In this register the addition of the words "Spec. Mem." against the number of the grave indicates that the casualty is one of the men whose names appear on the panels. Over the two graves are bronze plaques bearing the inscription "HERE ARE BURIED THE ASHES OF 300 SOLDIERS WHOSE NAMES ARE INSCRIBED IN THE MEMORIAL BUILDING IN THIS CEMETERY". In the entrance building is a bronze memorial tablet recording the names of 11 soldiers of the army of undivided India, buried in Muslim civil cemeteries in Thailand, whose graves are unmaintainable. |
