Lance Corporal William Hedley

Lance Corporal William Hedley, 6th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in France, aged 20, on the 19th July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Southdean and was the son of Andrew and Annie Hedley of Gospel Hall farm, Bedrule. He is buried in Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, Somme, France where his Headstone is inscribed ” Greater Love Hath No Man Than To Lay Down His Life For His Friends”. He had enlisted in December 1915 and was serving with the Battalion trench mortar battery when he was killed at Longueval on the Somme. On the 19th a much reduced Battalion was in positions near Longueval and suffered a very heavy bombardment which caused casualties of 6 Officers and 120 Other Ranks. The photos show both heavy and light trench mortars. The colour photo depicts a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.