Private Charles Wilson

Private Charles Wilson, 1st Battalion Scots Guards,  He was killed in action in France, aged 24, on 13th September, 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Theipval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France.  He had been born in Ancrum and was the son of Alexander and Annie Wilson of Sheddon Park Lodge, Kelso. Before enlisting in August 1915  he had been employed as a plumber in Kelso. On that day the Battalion was on fatigue duty in Bernafay Wood making headquarters for the Guards Division. The wood was heavily shelled and 1 Officer ( 2nd Lieutenant E. Holland) and 13 Other Ranks were killed and 1 Officer and 24 Other Ranks were wounded. He had been in the Battalion for only two and one half weeks and a bundle of letters and cards were sent back to his father in Kelso. The photos show troops on the Somme with the colour image showing a peaceful Somme landscape today ” with no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.

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