Private Robert Steel

Private Robert John Steel, 5th/6th ( Service ) Battalion, Cameronians. He was killed in action in France, aged 19, on the 29th October 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. He had been born in Hoprig, Cockburnspath and was the son of Margaret Steel. He had originally enlisted in the Royal Scots in Edinburgh but was posted to the Cameronians in France. He was killed during an attack on “Hazy” trench which it seems was not successful. The photos show the state of the battleground by late Autumn when the rains were turning the chalky soil of the Region onto a glutinous quagmire. The colour photo shows part of the Somme today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.