Private James Duncan

Private James George Duncan, 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in action in Belgium on 4th October 1917, aged 20, during the the Battle of Third Ypres. He was the son of George W. Duncan of The Gardens, Sanson Seal, Berwick and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium. In civil life he had been employed as a gardener. The photograph shows some of the atrocious conditions the troops were expected to fight in where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile Flanders drainage systems. It was probably worse for the kilted Battalions as the cloying mud made the kilt very heavy and extremely uncomfortable.