Private Ralph Coulter

Private Ralph Coulter, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in Palestine, aged 19, during the second Battle of Gaza on 19th April 1917 and is commemorated on the Gaza Memorial, Gaza, Israel. He had been born at Middlefield, Berwickshire and was the son of Mary and the step son of Alexander Hastie of Bankhead farm, Linton.  He was a resident of Coldstream. He fell in the assault on “Outpost Hill” where the Battalion, gallantly led by Major Forrest of Kelso, suffered heavy casualties in capturing and trying to hold the Turkish redoubt on the hill top. Eventually heavy casualties, enfilading machine guns and shortage of ammunition forced a retirement. The photographs show the Borderers in Palestine in 1917. The three soldiers all played football for Coldstream F.C. and Jim Murray on the right went on to be part of the Coldstream team which won the Scottish Amateur Cup in 1925.

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