Private John Burgon

Private John Burgon, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards. He was killed in action in France, aged 22, on 25th September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, France. He had been born in Eyemouth and was the son of John and the late Margaret Burgon of Church Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed.  Before enlisting in May 1915 he had been employed as a fish curer in Eyemouth and then Hull where he was living with his sister. He fell in the successful attack by the Guards Division on the German defences in the Lesboeufs Sector in this their last action during the Somme battle. Casualties were heavy with 2 Officers and 128 Other Ranks killed and 1 Officer and 199 Other Ranks wounded. As ever artillery fire caused the majority of the casualties. The photos show troops on the Somme and the colour images shows part of the peaceful, Somme landscape today with” no gas, no barbed wire no guns firing now”.