Dugald McPherson Wighton was my grandmother's uncle. He called himself Uncle Dood, possibly because Dugald was a bit tricky for my nana to say! He came from a farming family on the north island of New Zealand who had migrated there from Dundee. I have a postcard Uncle Dood wrote to my nanna. There is no date and it is written in pencil but in it he mentions Christmas and that he has to go back to the trenches. It is a very pretty silk embroidered card. We went to visit him at Nine Elms in 2009. He died in the No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station after receiving a shot to the head on 12 October 1917. I have been researching nurses and have found two Australian nurses who were very likely to have been there when Dood was there and maybe cared for him before he died, which is kind of comforting... I only found a photo of him in 2014 and was quite shocked to actually see his lovely face. It makes it so much more real when you can put a face to the story.

jennifer king