Lieutenant Arthur Douglas Ferguson, 1st/6th (Territorial) Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 36, on 12th October 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres. He had been born in Edinburgh in 1881 and was the son of Frederick and the late Jessie Ferguson of Morningside Road, Edinburgh. He was the nephew of Andrew Smith of Whitchester and Cranshaws Castle, Berwickshire. and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Belgium. He had been educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University where he studied Law between 1901-1903 before becoming a Chartered Accountant. At University he had been a member of the O.T.C. He was commissioned into the Seaforths in January 1916 and promoted Lieutenant in January 1917. The Battalion was part of the 152nd ( Highland) Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division and after the War an impressive Memorial was raised in its commemoration. It was erected overlooking on the Somme overlooking “Y” Ravine which was taken when the Division stormed the strong German positions in Beaumont Hamel on the 13th November 1916. A Plaque on the Memorial reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On the Day Of Battle”. The photographs show the desolation of the battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile Flanders drainage systems.
