244311 Cpl. Robert Elphinstone British Army 203rd Field Company Royal Engineers from:Fraserburgh As a child I remember my grandfather, Robert Elphinstone telling me stories of his time in the trenches, I believe in northern France. I recall one funny story of the crossing of a river on a felled tree when the bagpiper slipped off and my grandfather saw his kilt floating on top of the water as he walked above him, looking down and laughing, he looked like a mushroom!
Another story was of being terrified on guard duty in a wet and muddy trench late one evening. He heard slow footsteps in water at the trench bottom coming towards him. After what seemed like forever, a mangy, skinny, scared German Shepherd dog appeared.
I also recall that he was proud of the fact that, as a Royal Engineer, he built more things than he destroyed during the war. He was wounded near Shrapnel Corner on 20th of September 1918 and returned to duty. He was wounded much more seriously on 28th of September 1918 during Final Advance on Flanders. I just begun researching his service and was surprised to learn he was wounded twice. As a child I recalled him telling me about him getting wounded in thigh. I believe he told me he was assisting artillery when he started feeling dizzy and looked down to see shell casing or something in his leg. At that point he knew he'd been hit. On that day he was one of 7 who were wounded and 3 were killed or died of wounds.
He emigrated to the U.S. in 1923 and worked at GE. His best friend there was a German who, after years of knowing each other, found out they were in same general area opposing each other during the war!
I would love to learn more about his unit's involvement after 1916.
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