Ringer at St Aidan, Bamburgh. Enlisted with the 13th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. Died on 24 July 1916 aged 27. Buried in St Sever Cemetery, Rouen, Grave Officers A. 4. 10.
Captain Reverend Laing’s entry on the Central Council Roll of Honour, held at St Paul’s Cathedral
Alexander Laing was born in 1889, the son of Jacobina and the late James Laing, of Mizen Head, Bamburgh, Northumberland. Born in Burton, Northumberland, Alexander had an MA from Cambridge (Corpus Christi College) where he matriculated in 1907 and was a Deacon in Holy Orders. In 1911 he was in Exeter where he was a schoolmaster at Exeter School.
Alexander was a temporary captain when he died, from wounds received on 3 July 1916 whilst leading his men into action near Fricourt, in the Somme Valley.
Alexander is remembered on Bamburgh Castle War Memorial and on the Agnes Stuart Dove Laing Monument in St. Aidan’s Churchyard, Bamburgh.
The notes accompanying the Agnes Stuart Dove Laing Monument in St. Aidan’s Churchyard, Bamburgh record Alexander as the son of Agnes Stuart Dove. However, whilst James Laing was definitely Alexander’s father, his mother was in fact Jacobina, James’s second wife.
Memorial plaque in Bamburgh ringing chamber
Alexander’s record from the CWGC can be viewed here.
Ringing has been arranged to commemorate the life of Captain Laing.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
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Many thanks to Yvonne Cairns and the North East War Memorials Project for research for this biography.
Ringing to Remember 