In 1901, the Doull family were living at Tullylumb Terrace, Glasgow Road, Perth: Father, Gilbert Laurie (Commercial Traveller, Drapery), b. c1866, Olrig, Caithnesshire; Mother, Catherine, b. c1867, Glasgow, Lanarkshire; Son, James, b. c1895, Perth; Son, Gilbert Laurie, b. c1896, Perth; and Son, William, b. c1897, Perth. Also living at this address was Annie Chisholm (Servant), b. c1884, Argyllsh.

After the Battle of Ancre (13-18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front were stopped by the weather. During the rest of 1916 and early January 1917, military operations by both sides were mostly restricted to survival in the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. 

As preparations for the offensive at Arras continued, the British attempted to keep the German attention on the Somme front. The severe cold ended in March 1917 and thaws turned the roads behind the British front into mudslides. German demolitions provided means to repair roads, once the British advance began, but attempts to move artillery forward encountered severe delays.

Bray Military Cemetery is close to the village of Bray-sur-Somme which is about 9 km south-east of Albert. In 1917, the 5th, 38th and 48th Casualty Clearing Stations were located close to this village, and used this cemetery to bury those who died as a result of their wounds.

Although there is no definitive account of where, or how, Gilbert Doull lost his life, it is most likely that he died in one of these Casualty Clearing Stations of wounds sustained during the advance of March 1917. He was 21 years old.

Perthshire Advertiser, 14th March 1917:

“DEATH OF PERTH OFFICER"

“The death is announced as having occurred in France of Lieutenant Gilbert Laurie Doull, son of Mr and Mrs G. L. Doull, formerly of Glasgow Road, Perth, and now of Dundee. Lieut. Doull was born in Perth twenty-one years ago and was educated at Perth Academy.

On the family removing to Dundee, young Doull entered the establishment of Mr G. L. Wilson, ‘The Corner’. In September 1914, he enlisted in the Black Watch. He was in France in the spring of 1915, and saw fighting at Neuve Chapelle and Festubert.

Commissioned in the summer of 1915 in the Scottish Rifles, Mr Doull was on service in Egypt and Salonika prior to being invalided home in September, 1916. The gallant young officer sought the earliest opportunity to return to duty, and early in February he went to France for the second time.

A host of friends and fellow Academy pupils in Perth will regret Lieutenant Doull’s early death.”