Private John Younger

Private John Younger, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Flanders on 27th May 1915, aged 21. He had been born in Berwick and was the son of Mrs Robert Younger of 46a West End, Tweedmouth and is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. During the period 24th May-2nd June the Battalion held front line trenches astride the Wieltje-St. Julien road ( North East Sector of the Ypres Salient )  and suffered 14 Other Ranks killed with 1 Officer and 38 Other Ranks wounded mostly from shellfire. The first photo shows troops trying on their rudimentary gas masks ( The Germans had used poison gas for the first time on the Western Front on 22nd April ).The second photograph shows the impressive Memorial raised to 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 where nearby the Division had fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.