Private William Ruddiman

Private William Ruddiman, 7th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action on 25th September 1915 on the first day of the Battle of Loos, aged 25. He was the son of Mr and Mrs Walter Ruddiman of Foresters Lodge, Leslie Fife and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. He fell in the successful attack on the “Lens Road Redoubts” where the Battalion suffered very  heavy casualties.   Out of 950 Officers and men over 600 became casualties that day. This was the action in which Piper Daniel Laidlaw won the V.C. for piping the men out of the trenches amidst a storm of shot and shell and across No Mans land where he himself was wounded. The first photo  shows an actual attack with the troops disappearing into the clouds of gas and smoke. This was the first time the British Army had used gas in the War. The second shows Piper Laidlaw in later years at an Armistice Day commemoration. The artist’s nightmarish illustration depicts an attack at Loos with the troops wearing their gas hoods and using primitive grenades. ( Laidlaw had to pull up his hood in order to play his pipes )

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