Surname: |
Lobban |
Forename(s): |
Alexander “Alistair” |
Rank: |
Lance Corporal |
Service number: |
2927665 |
Regiment: |
555 Field Coy. Royal Engineers |
Date of death: |
23 June 1940 Aged 29 |
Place of death: |
Armagh Infirmary, Northern Ireland |
Buried Commemorated |
Lossiemouth Burial Ground Kingussie War Memorial and St Andrew’s United Free Church Memorial now in Kingussie Parish Church. |
Background
Alistair was born about 1911 son of Alexander Lobban and Mary Ann (m.s. McBain) of Inshlea, King Street, Kingussie. His parents were married on 15 February 1907 in Pitlochry.
In the 1921 Census he was living in King Street with his parents, four sisters and his brother Jack. His father was working at Fraser’s Joiners in King Street, Kingussie.
He married Jean Mowatt Morrison on 2 September 1939 at 54 High Street, Elgin by a Warrant of the Sheriff. This was the day before World War Two was declared.
Alexander and Jean had a son, also named Alexander, in 1940 and his birth was registered at Drainie. It is unsure if Alexander ever saw his son. Jean is buried in Lossiemouth Cemetery and remembered on a stone in front of her husband’s CWGC headstone. Also remembered are her mother and her father who died of wounds in 1918, in World War One and is buried at Doullens, France.
Alexander was a joiner in Fraser’s Joiners Workshop in King Street, Kingussie where his widow was living, in 1921, at Inshlea, King Street which was owned by Donald Fraser, Joiner. The joiner’s workshop had stood in King Street since the early 1900s and was moved to the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore where it was laid out as if it were the 1930s – see photos below.
His brother John “Jack” died in South Africa 14 September 1943.
War Record
Alexander enlisted in the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders but transferred to the Royal Engineers. In the Royal Engineers he was described as a “Joiner & Lance Corporal.” His home address was 43 Clifton Road, Lossiemouth when he was killed in a motorbike accident on 23 June 1940 while serving in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
The family inscription of the grave reads
ALWAYS REMEMBERED