Alex died from influenza and pneumonia on the third of February 1919 at the Leigh Auxiliary Military Hospital, Atherton, Lancaster aged twenty-eight. He rests in a familial grave in Kinfauns Churchyard. The grave is cared for by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission.
Alex was born in the nearby parish of Scone on the twenty-sixth of September 1890, fourth child of ploughman Robert and Elizabeth (nee Bruce). By the time the 1891 Census came around, the Sharp family have relocated to Burnfoot Farm Cottage, Kinfauns. In 1895 he started school in Kinfauns, being admitted in March. Tragedy was to befall the family in 1899 with the death of Alexander’s second sister Elizabeth (known as Lizzie) aged only eleven.
In 1901 the family lived at Westhill, Kinnoull. His father Robert had changed occupations and worked as an engine driver. The family had grown and Alex had five younger siblings.
Alexander would follow in his father’s steps. At the 1911 Census he was employed as a ploughman and was residing in a local farm bothy.
During the war he served in the Black Watch Royal Highlanders. He either enlisted voluntarily or conscripted. He met the tragic fate of surviving combat only to succumb to Spanish flu. Elizabeth was present when he died.
Robert and Elizabeth would lose another child in 1922 with the death of their son David. Robert died in June 1928 shortly followed by his daughter Annie. Elizabeth died in 1933, she would lose her son Peter in 1929. All rest with Alex in Kinfauns.
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