Private Thomas Gillie

Private Thomas Gillie,13th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps. He died of wounds in France on 2nd July 1918, aged 23. He was  the son of Thomas and Jessie Gillie of East End, Earlston and is buried in Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France. He had  originally been a machine gunner in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers but had been transferred to the M.G.C.  ( In October 1915 all the individual Battalion Machine Gun Sections had been formed into the M.G.C. ). He had already been wounded twice and before enlisting he had been a ploughman at Middlethird Farm, Gordon, Berwickshire. The M.G.C used the Vickers Mk1 water cooled gun in both defensive and offensive roles. The photograph shows gunners in action.