110 years ago today, William George Hewitt died on 14th October 1914 age 22.
He was the younger son of William James Hewitt factor to the Earl of Morry and Evlyn Francis Carey, and since 1904 lived in St Colmes House on the edge of Aberdour.
William went to study at Oxford but in June 1914 he left Oxford and on 6th August (2 days after Britain declared war on Germany) and before the conferring of his degree, he joined the 3rd Battalion Royal Scots at Weymouth, where they were based. The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was a training unit, it remained in Britain throughout the war. William though was attached to the 2nd Battalion, which on the outbreak of war was in Plymouth. After only a few weeks training William was sent to the front and joined his battalion as part of 8th Brigade in the trenches on 10th October. He fought continuously and on 13th a telegram was sent to his parent to say he was “missing”, and then on the 16th a further telegram was sent to say he was “wounded”. On the 18th they received the third telegram to say he was “found dead”.
