Lance Corporal Walter Martin

Lance Corporal Walter Martin, 6th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in France during the Battle of Arras on 3rd May 1917, aged 25 and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Arras, France. He fell in the disastrous attack on “Greenland Hill” undertaken in the dark on unreconnoitred enemy positions. Three Companies were almost wiped out. 12 Officers and 215 Other Ranks were killed or missing and another  152 wounded. He had been born in Newcastleton, had enlisted in Hawick and resided in Hawick. He was the eldest son of John Martin  of 6 Mansfield Crescent, Hawick and prior to enlisting in July 1915 he had been employed as a surfaceman on the North British Railway at Hawick. He was a married man with two children and lived in 12 Allars Crescent, Hawick. The photos show troops during the Battle.. The colour photograph shows the 9th ( Scottish ) Division Memorial at Pointe de Jour Ridge. Beside it are the remains of a German blockhouse captured by the Battalion earlier in the Battle. Due to heavy nearby traffic it was moved in 2006 to the nearby Pointe de Jour British Military Cemetery.