Roll of Honour
Lieutenant
Robert Wilson Porter
MA
Robert Wilson Porter was born on 22 November 1893. The son of a missionary, he lived with his family at 61 Roslea Drive in Dennistoun, Glasgow. Robert was educated at Whitehill Higher Grade Public School, where he gained the Junior Student’s Certificate in the summer of 1911. The Junior Student’s course included 350 hours of training and practice in the art of teaching, and was one of the main qualifications for entry to teacher training college. However, Robert first enrolled at the University of Glasgow, where he achieved a second-class Honours degree in Classics in 1915.
In October of that year, he proceeded to the Glasgow Provincial Training College, forerunner of Jordanhill College of Education, now the University of Strathclyde, to take a one-year postgraduate teacher training course. The College tutors estimated Robert’s capacity for teaching as ‘Promising’, but war intervened and he left a third of the way through the course to enlist on 24 December 1915.
Robert served with the Black Watch from January 1916 until his death, aged 24, at Passchendaele on 11 January 1918. Regimental records show that he was killed by shellfire and no remains were recovered. Although he has no known grave, his name appears on the memorial wall of Tyne Cot Cemetery. He is also remembered on the Roll of Honour of the Glasgow Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers, and on the Glasgow Provincial Training College War Memorial, located in the David Stow Building on the former Jordanhill Campus.
Comments and Citations
Information supplied by the family.
With thanks to Anne Cameron for providing further information from the University of Strathclyde Registry Records.