Background
Duncan Cameron McKillop was born July 25, 1893 in Glasgow, Scotland to Peter and Catherine McKillop. According to the 1901 Scotland census, Duncan had two younger brothers named David and James. His life in Scotland was typical of most families at the time with his father working as a labourer while he and his siblings attended school. Documents suggest that his father worked as an iron moulder. On April 5, 1910, Duncan landed in St. John, New Brunswick, after coming from Scotland aboard a ship called the Cassandra. He was twenty years old at the time and looking for work in Canada. Eventually, Duncan made his way to the area of Gagetown and then Fredericton where he found work as a baker. In the summer of 1913, August 21, Duncan married a young woman from Fredericton named Alberta Mount, daughter of William and Mary Mount. By the time war broke out in 1914, Duncan and Alberta were living at 534 King Street; however, there is no evidence to suggest they had any children. According to his attestation papers, Duncan enlisted in St. John, November 25, 1914 with the 26th Battalion. He had no prior military training and was described as having hazel eyes, light brown hair, a dark complexion, while standing five feet six inches tall. He was twenty-three at the time of his enlistment and, according to service records, Private McKillop remained in Canada training with the 26th Battalion over the winter of 1914-1915 until the unit sailed overseas in 1915.
Wartime Experience
On June 13, 1915, Private Duncan McKillop and the 26th Battalion sailed from Canada aboard the S.S. Caledonia, arriving in England June 24. He spent the next few months training with his unit in England before preparing to head for the Western Front in early Fall. On September 15, 1915, his service record indicates he left for France with the 26th Battalion and disembarked at Boulogne, France, before marching to Belgium near the area of Hazebrock. Over the winter, Duncan remained with the 26th in the Ypres Salient and northern France in the vast trench system participating in active engagements when in the line. While there are few details of his experiences in his service record, the war diaries of the 26th Battalion illustrate a constant routine of managing weather, rebuilding trenches, and repelling German shelling. By the summer of 1916, the 26th Battalion and Private McKillop were near Reninghelst, Belgium, and then St. Eloi, where the June war diaries describe a period of heavy shelling and bombardments of their trenches under weather conditions that were clear and warm. It is while here with his unit during the battle of Mount Sorrel that newspaper reports show Duncan being killed after one of these German artillery bombardments, a period that also saw the deaths of other local Fredericton boys, Charles Parkinson and John Lifford. Both the Saint John Telegraph and Daily Gleaner would report the death of Duncan, with limited details, illustrating the close connection he had developed in both communities during his short time in New Brunswick. Duncan was twenty-four at the time of his death. His body was never recovered. While Duncan never had any children of his own with Alberta, she eventually married another well-known soldier in the area, Henry Morris, who had returned as a result of injuries. Henry had also lost loved ones, losing three brothers early in the war. Together, Alberta and Henry would have a daughter.
Lest We Forget
Private Duncan Cameron McKillop is remembered with honour on the Menin Gate (Ypres) Memorial, in Ypres, Belgium. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate bears the names of approximately 55, 000 individuals who died in Belgium and who have no known grave.