Private John Archbold

Private John Archbold ( Signaller ) 10th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was killed in action in France on 27th September 1915 during the Battle of Loos, aged 22, and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial situated in Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos, France.  He was the son of Euphemia and the late James Archbold of Market Square, Coldstream and before the war he had been employed by Messrs Meikle and McDougal, grocers, Coldstream. He had been born at Norham and moved with his parents to Pallinsburn and then Coldstream. He had only been in France for two weeks before he died.He fell in the area near Hill 70 and Bois Hugo where poor reconnaissance and the few ambivalent orders caused heavy casualties among the attacking troops.  There was even a case of troops attacking Scots troops dug in near the summit of Hill 70 believing them to be German. The ghostly photograph shows British troops advancing through clouds of gas and smoke. This was the first time in the War the British Army had used gas. The second photo shows the village of Loos after capture. The artist’s nightmarish illustration tries to depict an attack at Loos with the troops wearing their gas hoods.