RAMC - 51st Highland Division 175 Field Ambulance

My wife’s uncle, Alister (Sandy) Mackenzie Robertson of Abernethy Perthshire (born Jan 1918), joined the Pioneer Corps (as a conscientious objector) around 1940. His Military no. was 7376851. As a private in the RAMC, attached to the 51st Highland Division - 175 Field Ambulance. He was on home leave from Sicily in May 1944 following injury/sickness then returned to his unit on 4 June 1944, landing in Normandy, I believe, on D Day +1. Does anyone have any further information about Cpl A.M. Robertson and his non-combatant war service? Many thanks.

 

Welcome Don, A look through this forum will produce a large number of requests for information on service personnel and the main piece of advice we can give is to obtain a copy of the individual’s service records from the MOD.

Researchers should bear in mind that although the individual may be recorded as serving in one unit or another at a particular time, it was not unknown for service personnel to be transferred between battalions or regiments so you need to be sure you research the correct unit.

Unless you are unlucky, service records will give a timeline showing units, promotions (and demotions!), embarkation/disembarkation dates, award entitlements, hospitalisations (although not medical records) etc etc.. This will enable further research via the relevant unit’s war diaries or other sources of information thereby building a complete and accurate picture of their service.

The process for obtaining records can be found here: Service records

Also worth using this forum’s search facility, once you are sure when and where they served.

Most importantly it is useful to know what records/sources have already been investigated – that will save a lot of fruitless searches.

Good luck.

 

Many thanks, Tony56, for this helpful advice.

 

Just to add, I cannot find any trace of Alister among the British Army casualty lists.

 

Thanks for looking, Tony.

 

There is a private family tree on Ancestry for him -

Robertson Family Tree
Personal Member Tree
1 attached record, 1 source photos
Alister (Sandy) Mackenzie Robertson
Birth: 1918 - Perthshire, Scotland

TD

 

175 Field Ambulance were attached to 153 brigade which consisted of 5th Black Watch, 1st Gordons and 5/7th Gordons.