Private Harold Marston

Private Harold Marston, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Belgium on 26th April 1915 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He was the son of Mr and Mrs Marston of Main Street. Tweedmouth and before the War he had been employed as an apprentice engineer at Scremerston colliery. The Territorial  Battalion had only landed in France on the 21st April and it was rushed north into Belgium where it took part in an abortive attack at St Julien in support of the Canadians suffering heavy casualties of over 400 Officers and men in their baptism of fire. The photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division for lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where the Division had fought its first action on 26th April 1915