MacKinlay, George Alexander Cheyne 200909 ( - 1917)

Private, 5th Bn. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)

Buried at

Commemorated at Hillhead High School

George A. C. Mackinlay, M.A., who was the eldest son of Mr. George Mackinlay, 65 Bank Street; Hillhead, was killed in France on the 15th August, 1917.

Educated at Hillhead High School, he proceeded to Glasgow University, where he graduated M.A., with honours in English Literature, Language, and History in 1912.

In 1913 he was appointed assistant English master in Perth Academy, which post he held till he joined the Army in 1914. It is no secret now to say that the headmaster was hoping to see him on the first available opportunity established as one of the English masters in his old School.

He was at all times a keen sportsman,and entered fully into the athletic and social life of the School, both as a pupil and as a member of the Former Pupils' Club. An enthusiastic player of Rugby, a leading member of the Literary Association, whose Magazine he founded and edited, he was perhaps one of the best and most widely known of the former pupils of the School.

To those who knew him there is no need to praise him, but some things may be recalled in tribute to his memory. Among all those whom the School is proud to honour there was no truer gentleman than George Mackinlay. Clean-minded, generous-hearted as boy and man, he was never known to do a mean act or to take an ignoble view of life. A poet and a dreamer at heart, he took the best out of life, its beauty and its joy, and seemed to carry with him some of its sunshine.

As a memorial of this gallant soldier and scholar a small volume of his poems has been published. This for his friends - but for himself:

"He hath outsoared the shadow of our night."