Alexander Muir

Alexander attended school in Buckie and then went on to the University of Glasgow in 1908-1909 where he studied Greek and Latin. He was a brilliant student picking up prizes including the Gold Medal in Greek, from his first year onwards, and becoming the Sandford Scholar in 1912. This 2 year bursary was awarded by examination in Greek. He continued to matriculate through to 1913-1914 and in his later years at the University, he acted as assistant of Latin to Professor J. S. Phillimore. His continuing undergraduate status was clearly not driven by failures in examinations, but must have been driven by the desire to study further at Oxford.

In 1914 he was awarded a Snell Exhibition, an award set up in 1677 by John Snell to allow Scottish Students to study at Oxford for a period of 5 years. In 1914, this was worth £100 per annum, payable in the first 4 years, and this was augmented by the concurrent award of the Newlands Bursary, set up in 1908 and worth a further £80 per annum. This was a very generous bequest, given that 50 years later, in 1964, students were only awarded a maximum grant of less than double that figure. He was accepted by Balliol College, the Oxford College most closely linked to Glasgow.

Alexander was an insomniac and was initially considered unfit for service because it was considered medically significant. In 1916, with the introduction of conscription, he was allowed to join the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps, based in Richmond. During his time in the OTC, his education background appears to have been put to good use, in testing cadets educational fitness for commission.

By 1917, the insomnia had subsided to the extent that he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant. In August 1917, as a member of the 8th Bn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he was posted to Belgium, and fell in action at Poelcapelle (now spelt Poelkapelle), on the 20th September 1917, as part of the offensive called the 3rd Battle of Ypres, or more commonly now Passchendaele. The village itself was not captured until the end of October 1917.

He was 26 years old, and was Mentioned in Dispatches(MID) for the action at Poelcapelle in which he died. As with many, the dispatch was only sent after he himself had perished, but this may have provided some comfort to his mother, brothers and sisters.

2nd Lieutenant Alexander Muir is buried in the Cement House Cemetery in Langemarke, a town fought over throughout the war, and only just recaptured in August 1917. It was where the Germans first used gas as a weapon. By the time of Alexander's death, his mother had moved back to Glasgow, to 37 Arlington Street, which also became her permanent address.

As well as the University Roll of Honour, Alexander is remembered in Balliol College Book of Remembrance, and the City of Glasgow Roll of Honour.