Private Robert Huntly

Private Robert Huntly, 6th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in Flanders on 20th September 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres at the capture of Zonnebeke Redoubt, aged 24. He was the son of James and Agnes Huntly who ran a poultry farm on the Hirsel Estate, Coldstream.  He is buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium where his headstone is inscribed  ” They Shall Walk With Me In White For They Are Worthy. Rev. 3.4. “.  Total casualties were 8 Officers wounded and of Other Ranks 26 killed, 200 wounded and 27 missing. The photographs show the atrocious conditions the troops had to endure during the Battle. The incessant shelling had destroyed the drainage systems in Flanders and the rains turned the ground into a quagmire. The second picture shows captured German pillboxes in the “moonscape”. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the men of the 9th and 15th ( Scottish ) Divisions who fell during the Battle. The 6th K.O.S.B. were part of the 27th Brigade in the 9th Division. It was erected on the Frezenberg Ridge near the village of Zonnebeke in the Ypres Salient and was unveiled in August 2007. A plaque in both Gaelic and English, with a quote from the Declaration of Arbroath, is affixed to the front of the Memorial. By Autumn the incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems and turned the Battlefield into a glutinous quagmire.