Private John Hendry

Private John Hendry, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action, aged 20, at Gallipoli during the “Charge”  on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah on 12th July 1915. He was the son of  Reverend  and Mrs Hendry of Paxton Manse, Paxton. He had been a Law apprentice and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey.  He had been born in Mordington and had enlisted in Ayton with his friend William Schooler ( see above ) who was also killed that day.  He was last seen bringing in two Turkish prisoners. His education was at Mordington Public School and the Berwick Grammar School where he was a noted athlete. For four years he had played the organ in his father’s church in Paxton. His brother William, who was in the same Battalion, reported his brother’s death a month afterwards. 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 men who had begun the attack. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons that day. The first photo shows Achi Baba, the objective of the attack, marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second shows the Borderers going over the top and the third shows the battlefield in 1922.