Son of Peter and Margaret Robertson, of Woodend Cottage, Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire. Native of Kennethmont.

Peter Robertson was born at Brae of Cults on Aug 12th 1889 to Peter Robertson and Margaret Mackie.

He was born at Kennethmont and enlisted in Aberdeen. He died of wounds (gassed) at St John's Hospital, Etaples. Served France & Flanders

War & Victory Medals, Military Medal

Awarded The Military Medal for gallantry in the field. LG 16/7/1918. The heroic deed cannot now be ascertained but almost certainly took place during the gas attack on 19th May at Hinges Chateau. Peter may have gone back for injured gassed comrades or given up his respirator for another man to use. He died 10 days later due to the effects of being gassed.

The letter S prefixing the service number indicates a wartime enlistment.

The Life of a Regiment, entry May 1918
On the night of 19th May, when in reserve, subjected to gas bombardment, a number of men were caught before they could adjust their respirators. That night one officer and and 11 other ranks gassed + 7 wounded. Next day 120 reported to MO.

1 GH, Battalion Diary entry, May 1918, La Bassee Canal near Hinges
19th-20th Church service in orchard beside HQ, 2 working parties on cable laying in Hinges Chateau grounds, 1 party lost 2 officers killed and 7 casualties. Other party suffered gas bombardment, 7 wounded, later over 120 cases of gassing reported.
Bn relieved 2nd Royal Scots that evening in Brigade Reserve; they suffered very heavily and much reduced, withdrew to Shropshire line from Suffolk line in Hinges.

It is known that Peter died of wounds ( the effects of gassing) in the St John's Ambulance Hospital at Etaples on 30th May. It is likely these injuries were received during the gas shell attack of 19th-20th May although there were a few casualties from gas shelling on the 26th. He would have been treated initially at a Front Line casualty clearing station before being transferred to Etaples, 45 miles away on the Channel coast.

Service notes
1st Gordon Highlanders

4/8/1914 at Plymouth: 8th Bde, 3rd Division
14/8/1914 landed Boulogne.
12/9/1914 to Line of Communications Troops after losing 80% at Le Cateau (the order to withdraw never reached them or others of 8th Bde. 500 Gordons were captured)
30/9/1914 remnants reinforced & returned to 8th Bde, 3rd Division
19/10/1915 to 76th Brigade, 3rd Division.
11/11/1918 La Longueville, France.

During the 1914-18 war, the neighbourhood of the Cemetery became the scene of immense concentrations of British reinforcement camps and of British hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and it was accessible by railway from either the northern or the southern battlefields. In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes, and the hospitals (which included eleven General, one Stationary and four Red Cross Hospitals and a Convalescent Depot) could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. Convalescent Depot remained. The earliest burial in the Cemetery dates from May 1915. There are now nearly 11,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site and over 100 from the 1939-45 War. The cemetery covers an area of 59,049 square metres. The graves lie below three terraces, the midmost of which carries the War Stone and two pylons, and the highest is dominated by the Cross. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.