Roll of Honour
2nd Lieutenant
William Wilson Paterson
William Wilson Paterson was born in 1888, in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, son of John and Margaret Bell Paterson. His father was a Minister but was dead by the time William was killed. He attended Glasgow Academy and on leaving entered a solicitors firm. As part of his training, he enrolled at the University of Glasgow to study Scots Law, in 1908-1909.
By the time of his enlistment in the Army he had become a partner in the Paisley Law firm of D. D. Dickie and Son which added Paterson to its name when he became partner.
William enlisted as a Private, and had been promoted to Serjeant at the time of his commission, on the 21st December 1915, to 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Bn. (Glasgow Highlanders) Highland Light Infantry.
2nd Lieutenant William Wilson Paterson was killed on the Somme on the 15th July 1916, aged 28, at the Battle of High Wood. William died on the same day as fellow Glasgow students John Brown, William Kemp Low, and Charles Gage Watt, who would have fought alongside him.
He is commemorated on the walls of the Thiepval Memorial in France, by his school both in their memorial plaque and Roll of Honour volume, and by his University.