Name of law graduate killed in WW1 to be added to Glasgow memorial

Photo credit: The Friends
of Glasgow Necropolis

Captain William Campbell Church, known as Billy, studied mercantile law in 1905/06 before becoming a stockbroker.

He lived in Partick and was more widely known as a rugby player who was capped for Scotland.

He played for Glasgow Academicals between 1904 and 1907, was on the winning team for the Scottish Club Championship 1904/5, and played for his country against Wales in 1906.

Captain Church was 32 when he was killed by machine gun fire within ten yards of the enemy trench at Gully Ravine, Gallipoli in 1915.

His name is one of 19 missing names that researchers have identified by using digital resources and student records held by the University of Glasgow Archives.

Now, 100 years after the war, their names will be carved in stone alongside those of the men and women already remembered in the University Memorial Chapel, and their families invited to memorial services on Remembrance Sunday, on 11 November 2018.

Katie McDonald, researcher with the College of Arts, University of Glasgow, said: “We are still piecing together the stories behind the names of the fallen and ask anyone who has any information about them and any pictures of them to get in touch.

“In 1929, when the University originally called for names to be inscribed in the Memorial Chapel, the University widely advertised in newspapers, asking families to come forward with names of the fallen. Some people may not have seen the advertisements, or they could have assumed their son or brother or father’s name was already on record. Also, many families found it terribly hard to talk about their losses and may have found it too painful to come forward.

“Where students studied at more than one institution, some have been remembered in one and not the other. Perhaps an assumption was made by those providing the information that it would be shared, or perhaps it was too hard to relay the news repeatedly.

“Now, thanks to digital resources, online research, and collaborations with both local projects, such as the Scottish War Memorial Project and the Inverclyde Great War Project, and national initiatives such as the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War project, we have been able to add more names to the Memorial Chapel.”