Private William Croll

Private William Lindsay Croll, 1st/4th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Black Watch. He was killed in action on 13th November, 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He fell during the very successful storming and capture of the heavily fortified German positions at Beaumont Hamel and “Y” Ravine by the 51st (Highland) Division. Casualties were as ever not light and the Battalion lost 7 Officers and 73 Other Ranks killed with 5 Officers and 141 Other Ranks wounded. The photograph shows the very impressive Memorial to Commemorate the Division of which the Battalion was part. It was erected overlooking “Y” Ravine near Beaumont Hamel and on the front of the Memorial is a plaque which reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On The Day Of Battle “. The other 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”.