Private Thomas Waugh

Private Thomas McGregor Waugh, 1st/6th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France, aged 23, on 26th October 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France.  He had been born in Cornhill-on-Tweed and was the son of Elizabeth Waugh and the husband of Margaret Waugh of Blackadder Home farm, Edrom. He had been recruited at a meeting in Norham in August 1915 and was posted to France only on 26th September 1916.   The photograph shows a recently captured trench on the Somme with the chalk soil of the Region very evident. Autumn rains turned this soil into a glutinous quagmire making movement for men and guns very difficult as can be seen from the photographs. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and assigned to line of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where at St Julien on the 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.

Scroll to Top