The Menin Gate in Ypres commemorates, by name, more than 54,000 casualties who have no known grave. The inauguration Ceremony took place on Sunday the 24th of July, 1927 and at the conclusion of his speech Field Marshall Lord Plumer said this:

"...It was resolved that here at Ypres, where so many of the 'Missing' are known to have fallen, there should be erected as a memorial worthy of them that should give expression to the nation's gratitude for their sacrifice and it's sympathy with those who mourned them. A memorial has been erected which, in its simple grandeur, fulfils this object, and now it can be said of each one in whose honour we are assembled here today: HE IS NOT MISSING, HE IS HERE".

John Duncan Coutts was born in Perth, in 1898. In 1901 he was living with his Uncle's family at number 3 George Inn Lane, Perth.

John Duncan Coutts's uncle, was also named John. He was the head of the household and by trade, was a Lace Dyer - he'd been born in 1855 in Methven, Perthshire. His wife Eliza was also a Perth girl, she'd been born in Scone in 1860.

Uncle John and auntie Eliza had four children - three girls and a boy, all older cousins to John Duncan Coutts. The daughters were Christina (a muslin ironer who'd been born in 1880), Emily (a curtain ironer who'd been born in 1885) and Catherine, their youngest daughter, who'd been born in 1893.

Their only son was Andrew who was born in 1895 and like all of his siblings, had been born in Perth.

The Third Battle of Ypres - Passchendaele

On the 31st of July 1917, behind the newly mastered 'creeping barrage'  the allied troops climbed out of their trenches along the whole front line, from Boesinghe in the North to Le Gheer in the South, and advanced towards the German forces. (The creeping barrage was an innovation whereby infantry advanced over open-ground, as closely as possible behind an artillery barrage that crept slowly forward towards the enemy lines - thus enabling our infantry to arrive at the enemy trench-line whilst the enemy was still sheltering).

The enemy’s first line was quickly taken and the British pushed forward about one mile before meeting much stiffer resistance. Later in the afternoon the advance was stopped and pushed back in places by carefully coordinated counter attack from specially trained troops.

However a worse enemy was afoot - the worst weather for 75 years turned the whole battlefield into a quagmire, resulting in the whole attack being stalled until the 10th of August. 

It's estimated that the Third Battle of Ypres cost the Allies around 300,000 casualties (35 men for every metre of ground gained - many of whom were lost to the mud of Flanders, having no known grave, and being commemorated on the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Memorials to the missing). The Germans suffered a further 260,000 casualties.

On the 24th of October 1917, the Perthshire Advertiser reported:

“OUR OWN MEN - Private J. D. Coutts"

 “Private John Duncan Coutts (19), nephew of Mr. and Mrs. Duncan, George Inn Lane, Perth, who was recently reported wounded and missing, is now reported killed on 31st July. He was a native of Perth, and prior to enlisting in January last was employed in Perth Post Office. He had been only three weeks at the front.”

In addition to John being commemorated on the Menin Gate, he is also commemorated on the former Perth Middle Church War Memorial.