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2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Cartlandt MACGREGOR
2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers Date of birth: 21st January 1896 Date of death: 26th February 1915 Killed in action aged 19 Commemorated on the Menin Gate Panel 22
Kenneth Cartlandt MacGregor was born at Buckingham House, St Mary's, Brecknock in Wales on the 21st of January 1896 the younger son of Cortlandt George MacGregor, orange grower and gentleman, and Margaret Josephine (nee Picton-Turbervill) Macgregor of Llantrisant House, Llantrisant in Wales. He was educated at the King's College School, Wimbledon from 1909 to July 1910 and at Lancing College where he was in Heads House from September 1910 to December 1912. He served as a Private in the Officer Training Corps. On leaving Lancing he was educated by a tutor at Laatzen, Hannover in Germany from 1912 to October 1913. While he was in Germany he applied in June 1913 to take the examination for the Royal Military College Sandhurst but in the event he could not attend the proposed date for the exam. He applied again on the 6th of October 1913 and entered the College the following month. On a form dated the 6th of September 1914 he expressed his preferences for the following regiments as follows: - 1) King's Own Scottish Borderers 2) Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 3) King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers on the 30th of September 1914 and was posted to Portland on the 1st of October. He was due to go to France in December 1914 but fell ill with a bout of malaria. His mother received the following telegram dated the 27th of December 1914: - "Beg to inform you that 2/Lt. K.C. MacGregor K.O.S.Bdrs is reported to be suffering from malaria on 13th inst but progressing favourably. No further information." On his recovery he went to France with a draft of one hundred and five men for the 2nd Battalion of his regiment. They joined the battalion, which had just come out of trenches at Wulverghem, in billets at Neuve Eglise on the 4th of January 1915. That evening five men from the draft were killed by a shell while in the village. On the 16th of February he was taken ill and was confined to his billet. On the 19th of February 1915 the 2nd Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers moved to Outerdam and relieved a battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment in the trenches at Verbranden Molen in the Ypres Salient the following day. They were relieved at 10pm on the 22nd by a battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and moved to Blauve Farm where they rested and cleaned their equipment. On the evening of the 24th of February they returned to the same trenches. On the 25th a rumour spread through the ranks that a German prisoner had been taken who had said there was to be an enemy attack that night at midnight. The attack did not take place. The morning of the 26th of February 1915 was misty and saw some enemy shelling. During the day Kenneth MacGregor was shot by a sniper while in the trenches and died instantly; three other ranks were killed that day and ten were wounded. He was buried "100 yards north of the ruined mill at Verbranden Molen, south east of Ypres" but his grave was lost in subsequent fighting. His father received the following telegram dated the 1st of March 1915: - "Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lieut. K.C. MacGregor Kings Own Scottish Borderers was killed in action on 26 February. Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy." He wrote in a letter home:- "I'd much rather be killed myself than lose my men---any officer would." Following his death, the Reverend Adam Fox, Heads House tutor (1910-1913), wrote from Lancing to his mother in a letter dated the 12th of March 1915:- "My dear Mrs MacGregor, Mrs Bowlby was good enough to send round to me the letters you had about Kenneth from his company commanders. One knew well enough that he would render a good account of himself, but how soon he had done his work. I think perhaps you would like to know --or at any rate I should like you to know that at one time when Kenneth was here I became very unpopular in the headmaster's house through being severe to one of the house captains, and Kenneth was about the only boy who stuck to me; I didn't know at the time, but people told me afterwards how he stood up for me--and it wasn't that I had done anything in particular for him, but I think he had a loyal spirit through and through, and also what is so rare at school an independent judgement and the courage to express it. This must have made him a good soldier I am sure, and it made him very loveable; your sense of loss must be very great; please accept my deepest sympathy" Adam Fox His brother, Lieutenant Cortlandt Richard MacGregor 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers, was killed in action at Gallipoli on the 5th of May 1915. His father applied for his medals in April 1921. He and his brother are remembered on their parent's grave at Ewenny Priory Church burial ground at Ewenny in Wales. He is commemorated on the war memorial at the Royal Military College Sandhurst.

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