Captain John Watson

Captain John Mitchell Watson, 1st/ 4th (Border) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action 13th November 1917 ,aged 27.  He had been born in Eccles and was the son of Reverend J. Mitchell Watson of Leitholm and is buried in Ramleh War Cemetery. He fell in the successful assault on El Mughar, Palestine. Casualties in the 4th K.O.S.B. were 4 officers and 31 Other Ranks killed in action and 138 Other Ranks wounded. Hundreds of Turkish prisoners were taken along with artillery pieces and machine guns He had been educated at the Berwickshire High School and had studied Law at Edinburgh University before going to work as a Chartered Accountant in Edinburgh. At the time of his death he was acting as the Battalion Adjutant. Before the War he had been a Lance Corporal in a Territorial Battalion , 4th Royal Scots, in Edinburgh before being gazetted Second Lieutenant into the K.O.S.B. in January 1915. He had joined the Battalion at Gallipoli in August 1915.  He was educated at the Berwickshire High School, Duns and is also commemorated on the Memorial Tablet placed in the new Berwickshire High School, Duns. His brother Norman (see above) had already been killed at Gallipoli in 1915. The photographs show Borderers at Ramleh in late 1917.