Lance Corporal Andrew Fortune

Lance Corporal Andrew Fortune, 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action, aged 21, in Belgium on 4th October 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Tyne Cot, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium.  He had been born in Ancrum and was the son of James and Margaret Fortune of Fairnington, Kelso. Before enlisting he had worked as a ploughman at Fairnington. He fell in the attack on Polderhoek Chateau which resulted in heavy casualties and limited success. The Battalion lost 11 Officers and 438 Other Ranks. In this action Captain Machin of Coldstream won the Military Cross. The photographs give an idea of the dreadful ground conditions in Flanders where the drainage system had been shattered by the incessant shelling and then flooded by the autumnal rains.