Lance Corporal Adam Utterson

Lance Corporal Adam Utterson, 1st/8th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Royal Scots. He died from wounds in Flanders on 8th February 1915, aged 29. He had been born in Chirnside and was the son of James and Mary Utterson of Grantshouse, Berwickshire and the husband of Jessie Utterson whom he had married in Kelso in 1907. He  is buried in Bois-Grenier Communal Cemetery where his Headstone is inscribed ” Asleep In Jesus”. He had served his apprenticeship as a bootmaker in Ladykirk and had worked in Kelso before moving to Cockburnspath as a shoemaker in 1914. The 8th Royal Scots were formed in April 1914 and were the first of the Scottish Territorial Units to be employed on active service having arrived at le Havre, France aboard the” S. S. Tintorette” on 5th November 1914. At the date of his death the Battalion was holding trenches in the Dickiebusch sector described as ” the dreariest spot in Flanders”. It is probable that the cause of death was by shellfire which though intermittent continued to cause casualties.