A recently rediscovered Roll of Honour has appeared in the War Memorial Chapel, listing all those men and women connected with St. Mary’s who served in the First World War. Those who gave their lives are marked with a cross, and curiously three of them are not listed on our wall-mounted war memorial.
The first is Captain John Henderson-Begg, who in 1911 was twenty years old and an engineering student. He lived at 15, Albyn Terrace with his father, also John Henderson Begg, a retired Sheriff substitute, his mother, and a servant. He served with the 4th Gordon Highlanders, and died at Thiepval on 23rd July, 1916, aged 25. It is not clear why he is not on the War Memorial.
Reginald Francis Japp was fifteen in the 1911 census, living in 19 Carden Place with his father, Francis, professor of Chemistry at Aberdeen, his mother (German born but naturalised British) and two older sisters, aged 30 and 28. They had three servants, including a nurse. By the time he signed up for the Machine Gun Corps he was living with his family in Acton, and like Henderson-Begg was an engineering student, on the register of Electrical Engineers from 1916. He died in Acton in 1920, aged 24, and is buried there with his family. That he died outwith Aberdeen of wounds after the war, after, in fact, the War Memorial was placed in the church, probably explains why he is not on it.
Lieutenant Noel Douglas Bayly seems at first to have little connexion with St. Mary’s: he served in the Irish Guards, and was the only son of Annie Lilla Bayly (nee Douglas), 3 Tite Street, Chelsea, and the late Major Henry Bayly, Gordon Highlanders. Noel died aged twenty-eight on 27th November, 1917, and is buried at Anneux British Cemetery. Henry Bayly, whose brother was a clergyman in Sussex, died in 1891 at Monaltrie Villa, Seafield, Aberdeen, and one of his executors was Sholto James Douglas in Albyn Terrace. This was his wife’s younger brother, and hinted at a family connexion that could be followed up – Annie and Sholto were the children of Bishop Arthur Gascoigne Douglas, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney from 1883 to 1905. Bishop Douglas actually registered Henry’s death, which was from general paralysis – he was only forty. Annie and Henry had probably attended St. Mary’s – Noel himself was registered at an address in Exeter at the time of his death in France, and he had before that worked at Traders Bank Chambers in Toronto, Canada. In the end Noel’s connexion with St. Mary’s was probably considered too tentative.
Dennis McAnulty, who does appear on the War Memorial, had been a mystery, but with the added clue from this hand-written roll of honour that two of his brothers served too, both of them in the trawler reserve, he was discovered. In 1911 they were living with their mother in Jack’s Brae. Charles was 29, Alexander 19 – both of them were general labourers at the docks – and Dennis 16. Dennis himself was an apprentice joiner. Their sister Mary-Ann was a domestic servant, and there was also a granddaughter, Sarah, aged 4. Dennis is commemorated at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery at Saulty: he died on the 29 December 1916.
Several women also appear on the roll of honour – we’ll look at these in a future magazine.