LIEUTENANT ARCHIBALD WILLIAM ROBERTSON DON
BLACK WATCH
11TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 25
BURIED: SALONIKA LEMBET ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, THESSALONIKA, GREECE
Archibald Don's inscription remembers his brother Robert who went missing in an attack on the Bulgarian line at Jumeaux Ridge and is believed to have died on either the 8th or 9th of May 1917. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Doiran Memorial in Salonika.
Both Robert and Archibald served in Salonika with the 10th Battalion the Black Watch. Archibald died eight months before his brother in September 1916 from a sudden recurrence of malaria. Both brothers had been pupils at Winchester College and both are commemorated on the school's memorial website. http://www.winchestercollegeatwar.com/archive/archibald-william-robertson-don/
Archibald Don was a member of the Union of Democratic Control, a British pressure group formed on 5 September 1914. Although described as a pacifist society it's aim was really to ensure that Parliament controlled foreign policy as opposed to the military. It was deeply unpopular with the right wing press although by 1917 it had 650,000 members.
Archibald, who was just starting to study medicine at St Batholomew's hospital, initially volunteered to work with a Red Cross Motor Ambulance in France but by December 1914 he had applied for a commission. However, he found his position as a British army officer untenable with his membership of the Union of Democratic Control and so resigned his membership.
Archibald Don - a Memoir by Charles Sayle was published by John Murray in 1918 and can be read online - https://archive.org/details/archibalddonmemo00saylialahttps://archive.org/details/archibalddonmemo00sayliala.