Corporal John Grahamslaw

Corporal John Grahamslaw, 1st Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers, He was a Regular Soldier and was killed in action, aged 30, on 26th April, 1915 during the Allied landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula and  is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been born in Yetholm and was the son of the late Thomas and Jane Grahamslaw.  He had enlisted in 1911 and served with the Battalion in India.  He fell in the fierce fighting at ” Y ” beach where repeated Turkish attacks could not dislodge the Borderers and their fellows in the South Wales Borderers and the Royal Naval Division.  1st K.O.S.B. was part of the 29th Division which was comprised of Regular Battalions and the landing at “Y” Beach was designed to draw Turkish reinforcements away from the main landings at Cape Helles. The landings were supported by the pre dreadnought battleship H.M.S. ” Goliath” which is pictured below. The action cost the Battalion 296 in killed and wounded.  However a mix up in orders saw the Division withdrawn and sent South to support the landings at Helles which were becoming bogged down. The photograph looks South from “Y” Beach.

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