Sergeant Joseph Cochrane M.M.

Sergeant Joseph Swinton Cochrane M.M., 10th ( Service ) Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He died in France , aged 28, on 14th October 1916 from wounds received in action during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Lilliesleaf and was the son of David and Catherine Cochrane of Linthill, Lilliesleaf and is buried in Dernacourt Communal Cemetery Extension, nr Albert, Somme, France. He had enlisted as a Regular in 1904 and was in India with the 1st Battalion when War broke out and was transferred to the 10th Battalion after their arrival in France in May 1915.  He had been awarded the Military Medal in early 1916 for gallantry in the field. The photos show Scottish troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with “no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”