233902 Cpl David Ogilvie British Army 12th Btn Northumberland Fusiliers from:27 Frederick St South, Meadowfield, Brandon Colliery, Co. Durham David Ogilvie was my grandfather. He survived the war, but I never met him. He died in 1953, when he was 54. He joined the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1915, when he was 16, and was sent to France in early October 1915, just after the Battle of Loos. He served with the 12th Battalion NF at the Battle of the Somme and took part in the capture of Fricourt, of Mametz Wood and several other actions in that part of the line. He was promoted to corporal on 23 October 1916. Just before the Battle of Arras in April 1917, he was sent home with a very nasty case of trench foot. He was discharged on 12 October 1917, officially 21 years old, but actually 18. He later joined the RAF. After the war, he married my grandmother and settled in Lincolnshire, working as a policeman. Emotionally, he was broken by his experiences on the Western Front and, by all accounts, he was very difficult to live with. My grandmother left him in the 1940s and he moved to Liverpool, where he died.
I have always been a bit obsessed with my grandfather and would love to find out more about him.
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