More about Robert Pearson

Robert has no known grave but is remembered on the Loos Memorial.

Robert Pearson   1391   Gordon Highlanders

A GALLANT DUNDEE GORDON.

The three sons of Mr Robert Pearson, 47 Loons Road, Lochee, a veteran of the 92nd Highlanders, have followed in their father’s footsteps.

They joined his old regiment, now known as the Gordon Highlanders.  One of them has made the supreme sacrifice, while the other two bear the scars of battle.

Mr Pearson yesterday received intimation that his third son, Private Robert Pearson, of the 2nd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders, had been killed in action.  The information was conveyed in a letter from his son’s officer, Lieut. George H. M’Donald.

He writes :–

“I regret to have to inform you of your gallant son’s death, and I hasten to convey to you the sympathy of all of us who are left in his platoon.  He fell near my side.  We had just captured the second German line trenches, and had sprung into the trench.  The retreating Germans were playing upon us a heavy artillery and rifle fire.  A few seconds after entering the trench your son was hit and killed instantaneously.  We were wearing smoke helmets.  For a minute I thought he had been gassed and had fallen, but the bullet had passed through his head.  He never uttered a word, and suffered not at all.

“Twenty-four hours later we were relieved, and returned for a rest to the trench where he fell.  We found his body, and on the Sunday morning we reverently buried him, those doing so being exposed to snipers’ fire.

“We shall miss him much in the platoon.  He never hesitated in the charge, and was one of the first in the trench, our company being the leaders in the attack.  I hope that the knowledge he died heroically fighting for a cause he believed to be just may be some consolation for you in your great sorrow.”

Deceased, who was 19 years of age, was home some time ago suffering from frostbite.  His other two brothers, Private William and Alexander, have both been wounded. William sustaining a second injury.

Dundee Courier 12th October 1915