In memory of Mary Simpson, wife of Alexander Stuart, merchant, Edinburgh, who died 15 September 1849 aged 57; Alexander Stuart died 6 June 1873 aged 80; also in memory of John Stuart, eldest son of the above, who died 28 March 1877 aged 59; Mary Stuart, daughter of the above, who died 19 September 1907 aged 78.
Bottom centre: Sacred to the memory of Alexander Stuart, third son of the above died 28 August 1900 aged 78; his wife Jessy Graham Simpson McGuaig d 10 April 1858 aged 32.
Base left:
Bottom left: David Aymery Stuart, Sec. Lieut. 7th Cameron Highlanders, born 14 Feb. 1896, died 29 Oct. 1916; Alexander Haig Stuart, born 27 June 1889, died 11 Dec. 1956.
Bottom right: Sacred to the memory of Margaret Haig, wife of Alexander Stuart, Advocate, died 11 March 1934 aged 73; her husband Alexander Stuart, Advocate, b 29 March 1858, d 11 Jan 1948.
CWGC: 2nd Lieut. David Aymery Stuart, 7th Bn. Cameron Highlanders. Accidentally killed 29th Oct. 1916, a. 20. Son of Alexander Stuart (Advocate) and Margaret Haig Stuart, of Lochrin House, Edinburgh. Born at Edinburgh. K 359
David Aymery Stuart was born in Edinburgh on 14 February 1896, the younger son of Alexander Stuart (1858-1948), Advocate and General Superintendent of the Local Government Board, and his wife, Margaret Haig (1861-1934). Alexander’s father, also Alexander (1825-1900), was part of the family which established J & W Stuart, net manufacturers (see Grange Cemetery Notables, William Stuart, 1820-88 – William’s impressive family memorial with the palm tree is three along from Alexander’s not insignificant family memorial).
Margaret Haig was related to Field Marshal Earl Haig and during the war raised money for a Red Cross ambulance with an appeal to “the Margarets of Scotland”. She became the recognised historian of the Haig family, undertook the major task of compiling an index to The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood’s Edition of Sir Robert Douglas’s Peerage of Scotland, edited by Sir James Balfour Paul (1914) and compiled a bibliography of “Scottish Family History” (1930).
David was educated at Merchiston Castle School, and then joined the Edinburgh office of the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company. He applied for a commission on the outbreak of war and was gazetted a 2ndLieutenant in the 7th Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders on 3 October 1914. The 7th Battalion landed at Boulogne on 9 July 1915 and took part in the Battle of Loos in late September. David was wounded in the knee on 25 September and invalided home. He was then attached to the 8th (Service) Battalion of The Cameron Highlanders at Stirling, before being seconded to the Royal Flying Corps. He was killed in a flying accident at Gogar Bank Farm, Turnhouse, Edinburgh, on 29 October 1916, aged 20, when he was a passenger in a BE2c biplane flown by George Edward Gordon Duff. In the BE2c the passenger/observer (Stuart) sat in front of the pilot (Duff). The plane stalled, sideslipped and nosedived so David hit the ground first. The Register of Corrected Entries attached to Stuart’s death registration records his cause of death as “Injuries due to having been crushed in the accidental fall of a biplane” – he had a fractured skull and dislocated spine. Duff was luckier – he was injured but survived not only the crash, but also the war.
https://www.airwar1.org.uk/ History of the RFC and the early aircraft flown in WW1
http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html
De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1919
The Scotsman, Thursday 15 March 1934, obituary of Margaret Stuart