Lance Corporal James Butler

Lance Corporal James Butler 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France on 15th September 1916, aged, 42, during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Roxburgh and was the son of Thomas and Ann Butler of 9 Weatherly Square, Berwick and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France. He fell in the action at ” Sunken Road ” near Mametz Wood where heavy casualties were suffered. 4 Officers and 114 Other Ranks were killed or missing and 7 Officers and 219 Other Ranks were wounded. The photographs show troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the fallen of the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire) Division as a Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where the Division had fought its first Battle of the War on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.