McKenzie, Leslie
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment: 8th Battalion Black Watch
Biography: Son of the Rev. Alexander McKenzie ; born Coull, 20 June 1893; educated Gordon's College, Aberdeen; entered Aberdeen University as bursar, 1911 ; Jenkyns Prize in Classical Philology, 1914 ; M.A., 1915. A student of the highest promise, he was prevented by the outbreak of war from finishing his Honours course in Classics, but was granted the degree of M.A. in absentia. McKenzie was mobilized with "U" Company, 4th Gordon Highlanders, and on 1 January 1915 was gazetted to the 8th Black Watch, with whom he crossed to France in May. He was twice severely wounded, but returned to the Front each time and served until wounded at Arras so severely that he died at Camières on 2 April 1918. There was nothing in "Homer" McKenzie that was not genuine, and everything he did he did with both hands. He never shirked spade work, and his scholarship was all the more brilliant for being sound. Ever unruffled in spirit by the heaviest defeat, he must have deliberately "wangled" his third trip to France—otherwise the effects of his wounds would have kept him at home. Still young in years, he died a man who confirmed among men the promise of his youth.
Date of Death: 02 April 1918
Burial Details: Buried at Etaples Military Cemetery, Plot 28, Row G, Grave 6.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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