Private William Hunter

Private William Hunter, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers.  He was killed on 12th July 1915 on Gallipoli during the “Charge ” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah, aged 21. and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been born in Melrose but lived in Lauder where his father was employed as a railway guard at Lauder station. Before the war he had been a farm worker on Threepwood Farm, Lauder. That fateful day became known as the “Black Day of the Borders ” as out of the over 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack only 70 unwounded men answered evening roll call. The first photo shows Achi Baba, the objective, marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second shows the Borderers going over the top and the third shows the battlefield taken in 1922