Private Andrew Paxton

Private Andrew Paxton, 6th ( Service ) Battalion ,Kings Own Scottish Borderers. ( C.W,G.C. site shows “A” Company 7th/8th Battalion as does “Soldiers Died”  so he must have been transferred at some stage  ). He was killed in France on 18th August 1916, aged 21 during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Swinton and was the son of Andrew Paxton of Hilton, Chirnside and he  is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval. France. He was lost in fighting off a German counter attack on” Intermediate”  Trench, Somme. A bursting shell had buried him and no trace of his body was ever found. He had enlisted in 1915 and is also commemorated on the Edrom War Memorial. Before enlisting in Berwick in 1915 he had been employed as a ploughman at Mountfair farm. 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”.