Lance Corporal William Blake

Lance Corporal William Elliot Blake, 10th ( Service ) Battalion Cameronians ( Scottish Rifles ). He was killed in action in France on 25th September 1915, aged 25, on the opening day of the Battle of Loos. He had been born in Leith in 1890 and was the second son of Andrew and Elizabeth Blake of Leyden’s View, Denholm and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France.  He had been an apprentice gardener at Minto Gardens and prior to enlisting he was foreman gardener at Conishead Priory, Ulverston, Lancs. The first photo  an actual attack with the troops disappearing into the ghostly clouds of gas and smoke. This was the day the British Army first used gas. The second shows the village of Loos after capture. The artist’s nightmarish illustration depicts an attack at Loos with the troops wearing their gas hoods and using primitive grenades.