Private William Schooler

Private William Howie Schooler, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed at Gallipoli during the” Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah on the 12th July 1915 aged 24. He had been born in Spittal and was the son of John and Isabella Schooler of Paxton and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. Before the war he had worked with his father as a joiner in Paxton and he had enlisted together with John Hendry ( see above ) in December 1914.  On 12th July only 70 unwounded men answered the roll call that evening out of over 700 Officers and Men who had begun the attack. The day became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as nearly every town and village had lost at least one of their sons that fateful day. Both Colonel McNeile from Bowden and his Adjutant Captain Lang from Newstead were posted missing presumed killed. 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 at Gallipoli and the third shows the battlefield in 1922.