Private Robert Stavert

Private Robert Stavert,1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 12th July 1915, aged 19, during the ” Charge ” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. HeHe had been born in Duns and was the foster son of Mrs Stavert of 20 Woodmarket, Kelso and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been employed in Kelso as a painter with Hogarth and Sons and as a Member of the Territorial 4th K.O.S.B. he was mobilised with the Battalion in August 1914 landing on Gallipoli in June 1915. That fateful day became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as at evening roll call only 70 unwounded men answered out of the over 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons that day. The author’s Great Uncle Corporal Jim Murray was wounded and spent six weeks in hospital in Alexandria before returning to Gallipoli or ” the Pen” as he called it . The contemporary photo shows Achi Baba marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second photo shows the Borderers attacking at Gallipoli aqnd the third shows the Battlefield in 1922.

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