Second Lieutenant Charles Watt

Second Lieutenant Charles Cecil Watt, 4th Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers att. 2nd Battalion. He was killed in action in France on 8th May 1917, aged 22, during the Battle of Arras. He was the son of the Rev. Charles James Watt and Mrs Watt of Polwarth and is buried in Orchard Dump Cemetery, Arleux-En-Gohelle, Arras, France. He fell in action near Fresnoy Wood where German shelling was very heavy. Casualties were Second Lieutenant Watt and 20 Other Ranks killed and 1 Officer and 158 Other Ranks wounded.He had been educated at the Berwickshire High School and between 1913-1915 he was an Arts Undergraduate at Edinburgh University. During that time he was a member of the Officers Training Corps. He then joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as a Private before being commissioned into the K.O.S.B as a Second Lieutenant in January 1916. ( It was reckoned that the lifespan of a Second Lieutenant in the front line on the Western Front was 6 weeks). His Headstone is inscribed ” Post Tenebras Spero Lucem”  ( I hope for light after the darkness). The photos show troops during the Battle.