Private George Telfer

Private George Telfer, 6th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 22, on 25th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive on the River Lys and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium. He was the son of George and Isabella Telfer of 37 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh.  The Germans had broken through French troops on the Battalion’s right flank near Kemmel Hill and had stormed Battalion H.Q.  ” B ” and ” D ” Coys were surrounded and cut off but after desperate combat ” A ” and ” C ” Coys together with some Royal Scots and Black Watch stopped the gap and organised a counter attack which drove the Germans back and took 120 prisoners.That night the Battalion was relieved and retired to trenches near Outerdom and then on to Poperinghe. His brother James also fell ( see above ). The photographs show Allied troops in defensive positions preparing to resist the German advances.

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