Private Hugh Girvan

Private Hugh Stanley Girvan, 1st Battalion, Cameronians ( Scottish Rifles ). He was killed in action in France on 8th November 1916, aged 19, during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Garvald, Haddington and was the son of Jane and the late James Girvan of Ancrum and is buried in Guards Cemetery, Lesboeufs, Somme, France where his Headstone is inscribed ” He Died For Freedom And Honour “. Before enlisting in August 1914 he had been employed as a gardener at Monteviot, Ancrum, joining his Battalion in France in July 1915. The autumn rains turned the battleground into a glutinous quagmire making all movement very difficult as can be seen from the photographs. The colour photo shows part of the peaceful gently rolling Somme landscape as it is today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.