Private James Mitchell

Private James Mitchell ,7th ( Service ) Battalion ,Cameron Highlanders. He was killed in action in France on 19th July 1916, aged 20. during the Battle of the Somme. He was the son of James and Ellen Mitchell of 35 Duke Street and the Great Uncle of Lynn Wilkinson ( nee  Mitchell ) who still lives in Coldstream. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial Dud Corner, Loos, France. 7th Camerons were part of the 15th ( Scottish ) Division. He was killed whilst he and his comrades had been consolidating a mine crater the Germans had just blown. His family received two letters, one from Captain MacLeod his Company Commander and one from his Platoon Commander Lieutenant Currie who wrote that he was a ” sterling soldier and and expert bomber “. He had already been wounded at the Battle of Loos in October 1915. Before the war he had been employed as a footman at Dreghorn Castle, Midlothian. The photographs show Scottish troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today.