Private Walter Nichol

Private Walter Nichol, 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action, aged 21, in France on 30th July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. He had been born in Stow and was the son of walter and Margaret Nichol of Overshiels, Stow. Before enlisting in June 1915 he had been employed as a shepherd and had joined his Battalion in France in October of that year. He fell in the severe and confused fighting near the village of Longueval on the West side of Delville Wood. An abortive attack was made on German positions in an orchard which resulted only in heavy casualties including 6 Officers killed and 9 wounded. The 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”.