Died: 17 November 1914
Age: 24
Alexander Logan Nathan Maxwell Moffat was the third son of Doctor R Maxwell Moffat, of Jersey and Sedmount, Dumfriesshire. He was born 24th November, 1889, and entered [Victoria] College in 1902, leaving in 1909. He was the first Cadet Officer in the OTC [Officer Training Corps].
Colonel Raymer* writes of him: “He was the keenest cadet I ever saw. One year he walked out to Crabbé Camp (seven miles) and home again every day. He could not get a bike, and his people would not let him sleep out there. He always arrived in time for breakfast.” He entered the army through the Militia, being gazetted Second Lieutenant in the 2nd (East) Battalion, [Royal Militia Island of Jersey], in 1910, and thence in The Prince of Wales’s Own West Yorkshire Regiment in the same year. He joined his regiment in India, and was transferred in 1911 to the 2nd Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment. He was promoted Lieutenant in February 1914, and for a time was Brigade Signalling Officer at Poonah.
He was wounded while serving with the [Indian Expeditionary Force] in the Persian Gulf on or about 17th November, 1914, and died of his wounds.
His Commanding Officer, who was himself killed shortly after, wrote of him: “We all deplore deeply the loss of your son. He was a most promising young officer. He was severely wounded while most gallantly bringing up the machine guns (of which he had charge) to the front, under a heavy fire, to assist his sorely pressed comrades, and died in hospital three days later. He was buried in the desert near the bivouac after the fight, with other officers and men.”
The above appeared in the Book of Remembrance of Victoria College, published in 1920.
*Colonel Raymer was the Commanding Officer of the Victoria College Officer Training Corps.
The Channel Islands Great War Study Group website is:
http://www.greatwarci.net/honour/jersey/database/maxwell-moffat-aln-basracem.htm
