COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES
Kilmaronock Grave Yard has been designated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a site of war graves. Today, over a hundred years later, CWGC continue to work to ensure that all the Commonwealth men and women who died during both World Wars are commemorated in a manner befitting their sacrifice. The dead were buried where they fell and there was no repatriation. There are two memorials in this church yard to the fallen. There are also a number to those who returned.
​
KMR184
ARCHIBALD WILSON (1893-1915)
​
Archibald Wilson was the son of John and Catherine Wilson. In the 1911 census, he was aged 18, living with his family at Mavie Mill Gate House. His father was a railway surfaceman and his occupation was given as gardener. The Forth and Clyde Junction Railway crossed the road at this location. Archibald was born in 1893 and died on 26th September 1915. He enlisted in Kingston, Surrey and was a Lance Corporal in the East Surrey Regiment when he died at the Battle of Loos. The Battle of Loos took place in France on the Western Front in the autumn of 1915.
KMR194
WALTER FORRESTER (1891-1920)
​
Walter Forrester was a Sergeant in the 8th Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. He was born 21.01.1891 and died on 7.01.1920. He was invalided out of army with benign tertian malaria on 19.03.1917. He died from renal disease from wounds received. He lived at Woodend Lodge, Kilmaronock, his father was a journeyman joiner and he was a journeyman gardener. Woodend Lodge is the cottage just across the glebe down by the Iron Bridge over the River Endrick on the South Avenue to Buchanan Castle.
KILMARONOCK WAR MEMORIAL
The Parish of Kilmaronock has a War Memorial to the fallen (shown in the photograph). It is located beside the A811 between Kilmaronock Church and Gartocharn. It is difficult to visit due to the lack of parking and the busy road. The memorial lists 22 names and was designed by the artist Sir D Y Cameron who lived in Kippen. It is a stone cairn with a granite mercat style cross and a granite plaque with the names of the fallen. It was recently renovated by West Dunbartonshire Council.
There has been talk of relocating the memorial so that it be visited more readily; possibly to the church car park here at the Kilmaronock.