Sergeant John Rodger

Sergeant John Rodger. 11th Balloon Section, Royal Air Force. He died on Service from pneumonia, aged 25, in the 4th Stationary Hospital, St Omer on the 18th February 1919. He had been born in Anderson, Glasgow in 1893 and was the son of Duncan and Jane Rodger of 16 Bridgend, Duns. He had been an apprentice grocer in Duns and had enlisted in the 4th Kings Own Scottish Borderers Territorial Force Battalion in 1910. He was mobilised in August 1914 and went with the Battalion to Gallipoli in June 1915 where he was wounded during the ” Charge ” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah on the 12th July 1915.By December 1915 his term of Service had expired and he was discharged from the Army. He then re-enlisted in February 1916 as an Air Mechanic Rigger in the Royal Flying Corps. He went to France in May 1916 and was promoted Sergeant in April 1918. He contracted influenza in the pandemic of Spanish flu sweeping the World and died in hospital in St. Omer. He is buried in Longuenesse ( St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, France.