256527 Pte. Alexander Shanks British Army 6th Btn. Gordon Highlanders from:Kildrummy Alexander Shanks was my father.
He joined the army whilst under age. He arrived in France on 5th of September 1915 and spent around 290 days in various places in Northern France.
He occupied the French trenches at Neuville St Vaast near Vimy Ridge after the French troops moved out to defend Verdun. There he was wounded by shellfire, just before the Battle of the Somme.
He was found in no man's land by stretcher bearers who gave him a cigarette. He inhaled deeply but no smoke was exhaled. A look at his back revealed where the smoke was going. There was a huge hole in his back where one of his lungs used to be. He was invalided out.
He remembered lying on the beach at Boulogne when a medic walked up the line selecting those wounded who would be returned to the UK. He made a great effort to moan pretty loudly to show that he was going to live.
He was repatriated and survived. He was discharged from the army on 16th of December 1916.
He was awarded the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the 1914-1915 Star.
Alexander seldom if ever mentioned the war and most of this brief history had to be researched, but once, in his cups, he recalled the lice, and how, in the trenches, he and his fellows held races chasing them along the pleats of their kilts by placing lighted candles at the hems.
He worked as a chauffeur and later mechanic, married and had 7 children of whom I am the youngest of three surviving.
His medals were sold to put food on the table during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
He died in the Insch, Aberdeenshire, War Memorial Hospital in 1972.
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