In Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt is the Commonwealth War Grave of Lieutenant Andrew Berghans McCreath, A.M., serving with the 2/7th (Territorial), Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, attached to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, who died 11/12/1917.
The son of Henry Gourlay McCreath and Agnes Isabella McCreath, of 1, Wellington Terrace, Berwick upon Tweed. He was born at Norham on Tweed.
In Norham (St. Cuthbert) Churchyard is a family headstone which reads:
In
Memory of
Andrew B. McCreath
Lieut. 7th N.F. (5th son? )
Died of wounds received in
Action 9th December 1917, aged 29.
Rests in the English Cemetery
Old Cairo
Andrew Berghaus McCreath was born 21st June 1988, at Norham on Tweed, the 5th son of the late Henry Gourlay McCreath, [Grain and Manure Merchant], J. P., [former Lord Mayor in 1900], and his wife Agnes, daughter of the Reverend James Aitchison Miller. [Henry Gourlay McCreath was born 26th August 1846 and died 10th January 1916].
Andrew [one of seven sons*] was educated at Berwick Grammar School, from 1898 to 1905. He worked on the staff of Barclays Bank at the Ponteland Branch, residing at the Rectory, Ponteland, in 1911. He also was attached to the ‘Cattle Market’ Branch in Newcastle upon Tyne. Andrew was also involved with his father’s business along with his brothers, H.G. McCreath and Sons, who were very involved in the Corn and grain markets.
Andrew was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant on the 18th May, 1915, then promoted temporary Lieutenant on the 30th January 1916, then temporary captain from the 11th August 1917, served with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Egypt and Palestine from the 20th January 1917.
2/7th Battalion (T.F.) Battalion was formed at Alnwick on the 26th September 1914 and assigned to the 188th (2/1st Northumberland) Brigade, 63rd (2nd Northumbrian Division in January 1915. In January 1917 the battalion moved to Egypt as a garrison battalion. It was disbanded on the 15th September 1919.
Andrew died at Nasrieh School Hospital, Cairo, 11th December 1917 from wounds received in action near Jerusalem 29th November 1917.
Buried in the Old English Cemetery, Cairo. He was awarded the Albert Medal for bravery after acting quickly to rescue men from an exploding grenade and gallant and distinguished service in the field. He was unmarried.
Source: De Ruvigny Roll of Honour
Additional Citation note
An extract from The London Gazette 1st Jan., 1918., records the following:- “On 26th July, 1917, during an inspection of grenades, one of the grenades fell on the ground and detonated, and Lieutenant McCreath, hearing warning shouts, ran up and picked up the bomb. In order to get rid of it without endangering others, he had to run until he found an empty dug-out into which to throw it. As he was about to throw it away the detonator exploded; fortunately, the ammonal was wet (although Lieutenant McCreath did not know this), and no further explosion took place or he would almost certainly have been killed or severely injured.”
Acknowledgments: Tony Harding
*The seven sons were William, [who was gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th (Renfrewshire) Battalion Prince’s Louise’s (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) on the 24th August 1915, father to 3 boys, and the eldest was Henry Gourlay McCreath MBE who died on the 22nd January 2015 in his 100th year]. James Aitchison Miller, resided at Gainslow House, [Gazetted a temporary lieutenant in the 5th Battalion Northumberland Volunteer Regiment on the 17th September 1917], Henry Gourlay Chrichton, [who was a solicitor], is remembered at Newcastle upon Tyne on NUT061]. John, Andrew, Thomas and David, they had a sister named Jeanie.
His story is told in: Sobo, M.E., We Will Remember Them: The story of the men on the Ponteland War Memorial, Ponteland Parish Council, 2005,
Andrew Berghans McCreath is remembered at Berwick on B25.01, B25.08 and B25.21, at Newcastle on NUT049 and at Ponteland P12.10.
