Private William Davidson

Private William Davidson, 49th Battalion ( Edmonton Regiment ) Canadian Infantry. He was killed in action in Belgium on 30th October 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres and is buried in Poelcapelle British Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium.  He had been born in Teviothead and was the son of William and Mary Davidson of Slaidhills, Commonside, Teviothead. After working in Glasgow as a railway ticket collector he had emigrated to Canada and was working in Ontario as a railway company brakeman when he enlisted in April 1916.  He was posted missing after an attack near Paschaendaele. The photographs give a picture of the atrocious conditions of the Flanders battlefield where the drainage systems had been destroyed by the incessant shelling.