Allan Lindsay was a trooper (equivalent to a private) in the 6th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment. In 1942 this unit was fighting in the Libyan and Egyptian desert against German and Italian forces. In June 1942 the British and their allies were being pushed back, having retreated after the Battle of Gazala and with the fall of the port of Tobruk. They were fighting delaying actions to try to reduce the momentum of the Germans and Italians and at the end of June, the Battle of Mersa Matruh began. (Note that historians now talk about three battles of El Alamein over a period of three months – Mersa Matruh was the last main battle before the El Alamein sequence began.)
6th RTR was one of the battalions in 4th Armoured Brigade, itself a part of 1st Armoured Division and XIII Corps. After heavy fighting earlier in June (the Gazala battles) their strength was reduced but as the Germans and Italians advanced on the 26th, 6th RTR moved up and on the 27th in confused flighting they held their ground.
Note Allan was located in the red dashed circle, bottom left, labelled “4 Armd Bde”. On this day five British tanks of the Lee/Grant type were destroyed and Allan was killed.
He is buried at Halfaya Sollum CWGC Cemetery:
Others buried with him died on the same day with 6 RTR. They are:
Charles Ingram
George Frederick Martin, age 27 from Guildford in Surrey, a married man
Thomas Joseph Mayo, age 21 from West Bromwich, a married man
Andrew Young, aged 25 from Glasgow
In the 6th RTR war diary, Ingram, Martin and Young were listed as missing, believed killed; Mayo was listed as wounded and missing. Allan Lindsay is listed as wounded in action.
From CWGC records:
The record of Allan’s grave, including the words chosen by his parents.
This is the equivalent record for Thomas Mayo:
And for Andrew Young:
Allan was born on 1st March 1920 at 27 Langside Road, Govanhill. His parents were Thomas (b1888) and Margaret Henderson Baird (b1889, in the record she calls herself Maggie), who had married in 1915. Thomas’s job was as a “manual instructor (public school)”, which I interpret as ironworking or woodworking, but I’d be interested to hear from anyone who knows better. In the 1921 Census his job was stated to be “school teacher”.
Allan had two siblings, John (who was two years older) and Margaret (who was one year younger).
However, I’m not sure how to link him to Bearsden. His parents do not appear to have lived there. In the 1940 Valuation Roll there are three listings for Allan Lindsay but they require Allan to have become sufficiently wealthy to buy a house in Bearsden by the age of 20.