Private Alexander Middlemiss

Private Alexander Middlemiss, 1st/6th ( Territorial ) Battalion ,Northumberland Fusiliers. He died of wounds in Flanders on 2nd November 1917, received during the Battle of Third Ypres. He was the son of John  Middlemiss of West Learmouth, Cornhill on Tweed and is buried in Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium. The incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage system and turned the ground into a desolate quagmire as can be seen from the photographs. ( Over 4 million shells were fired in the opening barrages alone ). The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and assigned to lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby at St. Julien on the 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.

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