Drysdale, AI

Major Alexander Icely Drysdale

Alec was born on May 13th 1881, the second son of an ex-Indian civil servant, also called Alexander Drysdale, and his wife, Louisa. Whilst at the College he was a boarder in Elm Lawn, and after three years as a pupil left in the summer of 1896. In April 1899 he took a militia position in the Kent Artillery, and the following year he transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery, with whom he subsequently went out to South Africa to fight in the Boer War, during which period he was promoted to Lieutenant, in April 1901. After the War had finished he and his battery were sent to Mauritius, where in 1906 he was appointed as Aide de Camp to the Governor of Mauritius, Sir Cavendish Boyle, a position he held for the next four years. Following this he spent a period serving in Gibraltar, during which time he was promoted to Captain, then in 1912 returned to England in order to serve as Adjutant of the Ordnance College, Woolwich.
When war was declared in 1914 Alec was transferred to the port of Berehaven in Ireland, where he was in charge of the artillery defences. In early 1915 however he was tasked with raising “A” Battery, 87th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, and was in command of that unit when he transferred to France for the first time in July. In October of that year he was promoted once more, this time to the rank of Major. He was involved in a reconnaissance mission near Delville Wood on the Somme in late July 1916 when he was declared “missing”, and is believed to have been killed on July 28th.