Company Sergeant Major Charles Richardson

Company Sergeant Major Charles Richardson, 7th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in France on 25th September 1915, aged 39, on the first day of the Battle of Loos. He was the husband of Annie Richardson of 28 Church Street, Berwick and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. He fell in the successful but very costly attack on the Lens Road Redoubt.  Casualties were 20 Officers and 600 Other Ranks out of 950 attackers. It was here that Piper Daniel Logan Laidlaw of the 7th won his Victoria Cross piping the men out of their gas choked trench and into a hail of machine gun fire. He was wounded but played the men over No Mans Land and into the German trenches with the stirring airs ” Blue Bonnets O’er the Border ” and ” The Standard on the Braes o’ Mar “.  The first photo  shows the actual assault with the troops disappearing into the gas and smoke. This was the first time the British Army had used gas. The second shows the village of Loos after its capture. The third photo shows Piper Laidlaw at a later Armistice Day Parade. The artist’s nightmarish illustration depicts a Battalion attack at Loos with the troops wearing their gas hoods and using primitive grenades.