Private Alexander Paterson Tennant
Royal Army Medical Corps
Died 7 January 1915
Born in Renfrew in 1883, Private 18941 Alexander Paterson Tennant was the son of the area weights and measures inspector. He was educated in Wigtown and was employed in the chemist shop of Mr Starke and, later, Mr Nicholson. He went on to serve his apprenticeship in Newton Stewart, taking charge of the shop in Albert Street. At the age of 18 he went to Glasgow to further his education before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps with which he served the standard three years. After leaving the army he returned to Glasgow and qualified as a chemist before moving to Dumfries.
Following a move to England he accepted a lucrative job offer in South Africa where he married Henrietta Changuion. They lived in Transvaal and had two children. At the outbreak of war he returned to England to re-enlist, leaving behind his family, including a fifteen day old baby.
He was among some of the first troops to go over the Channel with the aim of relieving the siege of Antwerp. However the city had fallen to the Germans before he arrived and he was diverted to Dunkirk, then Boulogne, where he worked in one of the hospitals. On 3 January 1915 he was stricken with a severe form of blood poisoning and, despite all efforts, he died on 7 January. Private Tennant is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.