Stanislaus Alexandrovich - Maternal Grandfather

Our maternal grandfather Stanislaus Alexandrovich was the second son and youngest child of Mikhail and Eva Alexandrovich's family of three. He left his family farm in Skubai, Lithuania around 1907, aged 24. He was attracted by British government advertisements for 30 thousand foreign miners and coal mining was very well paid. Stanislaus worked as a miner in Drongan, Ayrshire, Scotland.

Stanislaus was born on 20th January 1883 in the village of Skubai. He married on 23rd January 1908 in Drongan and there are several errors on his marriage certificate; his Christian name is wrongly recorded as Constantin and despite being highly literate, his signature is recorded only as an X, which seems to have been the custom among new migrants who were reluctant to be traced and perhaps returned home.

Stanislaus is remembered as a patient, gentle man with quiet habits, never losing his temper or raising his voice. He read a lot and wrote regular letters to his parents and brother back in Lithuania; the evening family ritual was for the family to gather around Stanislaus as he read aloud his latest book and family letters to his young family.

Stanislaus was called up in 1917, a late recruit because of his wife's German ethnicity, reflecting the desperate state of the British war effort. He joined the regiment of the King's Own Scottish Borderers. Stanislaus served with valour and although severely wounded, continued to fight in combat until he was killed in action at Ypres, Belgium, where he's buried. He died during the last few days of World War 1. He was aged 35. The village of Drongan commemorated his ultimate sacrifice by presenting his widow with a gold medal; his name is inscribed on it as Stanislaus Alexandrovich which is how it is also recorded in the annals of the KOSB headquarters in Edinburgh Castle.