Private John Forster, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 12th July 1915, aged 20, during the ” Charge ” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in Brampton, Cumberland and was the son of John and Ruth Forster of Longrow, Liddlebank, Liddesdale and 19 Douglas Square, Newcastleton and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. 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 gone into action. Few Border towns and villages had not lost one of their sons that day. Both Colonel McNeile from Bowden and is Adjutant Captain Lang from Newstead were posted missing presumed killed. The author’s Great Uncle Corporal Jim Murray from Coldstream was slightly wounded and spent six weeks in hospital in Alexandria before returning to Gallipoli or ” the Pen” as he called it. 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 attacking at Gallipoli and the third shows the Battlefield in 1922.
