3/5840 Pte John Purcell, 1st Bn, Cameron Highlanders

3/5840 Private John Purcell of the 1st Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders was killed in action on the 11th October 1914. His number indicates that he joined the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion on about the 20th August 1914 and so he had not been overseas very long before he was killed.

Strangely, his medal index card makes no mention of his award of the 1914 Star (and clasp) to which he would have been entitled. There is a note next to the entries for the British War and Victory medals that these were returned (and would have been broken up after ten years).

I would suggest that John Purcell was probably an old soldier and was almost immediately posted to a regular battalion after he enlisted with the Special Reserve. It was then probably a matter of weeks or even days before he found himself overseas with the regular 1st Battalion.

John Purcell is buried in Vendresse British Cemetery on the Aisne. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission adds no additional detail about him, although Soldiers Died in The Great War notes that he was born in Camelon, Falkirk, was living in Glasgow and enlisted in Edinburgh.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission