Second Lieutenant Donald Edward Cruickshank was born on 2 November 1887 in Notting Hill, Kensington. He was the second of the three sons of George Edwin Cruickshank (1848-1925) and Sarah Maria Cruickshank née Tylor (1854-1945).
The 1891 census shows him living at 6 Lorton Terrace, Ladbroke Road, Notting Hill, with his parents and his brother George Malcolm Cruickshank (1885-1980), together with a nurse, a cook and a housemaid. His father was shown as a barrister. (Nos.1-6 Lorton Terrace were subsequently renumbered to 71-81 Ladbroke Road in 1908). In the 1901 census he was shown as living at 27 High Street, Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire, with his parents, both siblings; George and Andrew John Tuke Cruickshank (1897-1916), together with a nurse, a cook and a house/parlour-maid.
He was educated at Linton House School, Holland Park Avenue, Notting Hill, at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Queen's Road, Barnet, Hertfordshire, EN5 4DQ and at Aldenham School, Aldenham Road, Elstree, Borehamwood, WD6 3AJ. Having obtained a mathematical exhibition at St John's College, Cambridge, he went into residence there in October 1906 where he took his BA degree. He was a keen oarsman, and rowed in the first Lent Boat and second May Boat for his college club, the Lady Margaret Boat Club, and was in the winning crew of the senior trial eights of the same club in 1907. He continued his studies at the Architectural Association (where he won the Banister Fletcher Bursary in 1912-1913) and at The Royal Academy School from 26 November 1912. He was an Assistant Architect to Sir Charles A Nicholson, Bart., of 3 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London.
He volunteered for active service at the outbreak of World War One and joined the 18th (Service) Battalion, 1st Public Schools, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) as a Private in August 1914, his service number was 1399. He received a commission and was gazetted Second Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion, Border Regiment on 10 May 1915. He was attached to the 5th (Service) Battalion, The Duke of Edinburgh's Wiltshire Regiment and proceeded with them to Gallipoli, where he took part in the evacuation of the peninsula; served for a time in Egypt and subsequently with the Indian Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia, taking part in the successful attack on Umm-el-Harrnah and Felahiah. He was reported missing after the attack on Sanna-i-Yat, on the Tigris on 9 April 1916 and is was assumed to have been killed in action, aged 28, on or about that date. (He was last seen on the parapet of a Turkish trench).
As he has no known grave he was commemorated on Panels 30 and 64 at the Basra Memorial, Iraq. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph of 10 November 2013 the Basra Memorial has been sabotaged and the bronze plaques showing the names are now missing. He is also commemorated on the war memorials at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, and at St John's College Chapel, Cambridge. Pages 129-133 of St John's College Roll of Honour outline his life in more detail and his name is on his father’s gravestone in Bushey churchyard.
Probate records confirm that his home address had been 6 Blakesley Avenue, Ealing, W5 and that when probate was granted on 26 February 1920 to his father, his effects totalled £1,097-19s-5d. His father was also sent his army effects totalling £74-10-6d on 8 April 1920. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal and these were sent to his father at 6 Blakesley Avenue, Ealing, on 2 March 1922.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
