Rank
Lieutenant 65799
Regiment
Cameronians, Scottish Rifles 9th Battn
Death
26th March 1945
Circumstances of death
Killed in action as part of Operation Torchlight, one of three British-led operations (Torchlight, Turnscrew, Widgeon) in the larger Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine in NW Germany. Plunder began on the 24th of March, 1945 – two days before Gordon’s death. Major J.H. McNair’s entry into the 9th Battalion war diary records the reconnaissance patrol as traveling into a forest 2000 yards in front, and that they were found when Allied forces overran the area in the following weeks. The history of the Cameronians records it thus: “On the night of 25th/26th March, a patrol, consisting of Lieut. O.B. Gordon, and two Riflemen, was sent out, to contact troops of the 51st Division in a small wood South of the Sonfeld Forest. Unfortunately, they met with disaster, Lieut. Gordon being killed and both riflemen being wounded, one being captured”
Age
28
Burial
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery 58. E. 14.
Parents
Robert Buchan Gordon and Agnes Robertson Gordon
Spouse
Education
Glasgow Necropolis
Other Memorials
There is a lectern in Kelvinside Hillhead Parish Church presented by his mother in his memory
Other Information
He was recruited from Kelvinside Academy Officer Training Corps (OTC), the third of his brothers to be recruited to the 5th/8th Cameronians from Kelvinside Academy OTC between 1933 and 1935. This is explicitly mentioned in January 1936 edition of The Covenanter (the regimental magazine). He seems to have been a keen athlete, as was his older brother Charles, with both representing the battalion in the Inter-Battalion Relay Race during the 1930s.
Acknowledgements and Sources
Much of the information on which this profile is based is drawn from various internet sources which are listed below. The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis also wish to make full acknowledgement and thanks for the permitted use of any information or images generously supplied specifically for exhibition, publication or display in connection with The Roll of Honour and accompanying profiles to Ancestry, and Find my past.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Family Search
Scotlands People
Rank
Lieutenant 65799
Regiment Information
Cameronians, Scottish Rifles 9th Battn
Death
26th March 1945
Circumstances of Death
Killed in action as part of Operation Torchlight, one of three British-led operations (Torchlight, Turnscrew, Widgeon) in the larger Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine in NW Germany. Plunder began on the 24th of March, 1945 – two days before Gordon’s death. Major J.H. McNair’s entry into the 9th Battalion war diary records the reconnaissance patrol as traveling into a forest 2000 yards in front, and that they were found when Allied forces overran the area in the following weeks. The history of the Cameronians records it thus: “On the night of 25th/26th March, a patrol, consisting of Lieut. O.B. Gordon, and two Riflemen, was sent out, to contact troops of the 51st Division in a small wood South of the Sonfeld Forest. Unfortunately, they met with disaster, Lieut. Gordon being killed and both riflemen being wounded, one being captured”
Age
28
Burial
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery 58. E. 14.
Parents
Robert Buchan Gordon and Agnes Robertson Gordon
Spouse
Education
Glasgow Necropolis
Other Memorials
There is a lectern in Kelvinside Hillhead Parish Church presented by his mother in his memory
Other Information
He was recruited from Kelvinside Academy Officer Training Corps (OTC), the third of his brothers to be recruited to the 5th/8th Cameronians from Kelvinside Academy OTC between 1933 and 1935. This is explicitly mentioned in January 1936 edition of The Covenanter (the regimental magazine). He seems to have been a keen athlete, as was his older brother Charles, with both representing the battalion in the Inter-Battalion Relay Race during the 1930s.
Acknowledgements and Sources
Much of the information on which this profile is based is drawn from various internet sources which are listed below. The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis also wish to make full acknowledgement and thanks for the permitted use of any information or images generously supplied specifically for exhibition, publication or display in connection with The Roll of Honour and accompanying profiles to Ancestry, and Find my past.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Family Search
Scotlands People
Gallery
Gordon Family Monument
Credits
Compiled by Morag Fyfe, Historical and Genealogical Researcher for The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis.
