Soldier Record

I have been researching my husband's family tree for over 2 years now and we knew that someone in his family had died in WW1 but neither my husband or his father knew who it was. It was on his mothers side of the family and as my mother in law was dead we had no one to ask.

William Patterson dies in Loos after less than one month of arriving in France WW1

After researching the family tree I found details of my husband's great grandfather and after many months of searching I could not find a death certificate. My mother in law had always said to her children that one of their relatives was mentioned in the WW1 Cenotaph in Kilmarnock so my husband and I got the keys from the Library and found a William Patterson who served in the Highland Light Infantry.

Months later I decided to check the Dick Institute's old microfiche of the local newspaper - The Kilmarnock Standard. My husband and I went up one Saturday morning and started delving through

the newspapers reporting deaths of soldiers in WW1.

It was a eureka moment when my husband found the attached article reporting the death of his great grandfather. This article confirmed all the information I already had found about him, his wife and children. The only difference was that he served in the 7th Royal Scots Fusiliers so the soldier in the cenotaph was not my husband's grandfather but due to this we had started to track him down. If there had not been another William Paterson we may not have started to look for a solder who served in WW1

I have found his medals records and that he has a memorial in the Loos Memorial Northern France which my husband and I plan to visit in the spring of 2009.

This has brought my husband's great grandfather to life in the 21st Century. What a pity that after less than one month of active service that he should die through a shell burst.