Private Alexander Bayne

Private Alexander Bayne, 1st/6th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Black Watch.  He died from wounds in France, aged 25, on the 31st July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He is buried in Albert Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France and he is also commemorated on a plaque in Coldstream Parish Church.  He had been born in Auchterarder and was the son of the late William and Ann Bayne of Stirling. He had served his apprenticeship as a baker in Auchterarder and there he was a member of the Territorial Black Watch. Prior to the War he was working in Coldstream and as a former Territorial he re-enlisted going to France in May 1915. He fell in the Battalion’s first real action, an attack on the infamous High Wood. The artillery barrage was insufficient and heavy machine gun fire caused heavy casualties leading to the attack failing. 4 Officers and 50 Other Ranks were killed and 6 Officers and 200 Other Ranks were wounded. The Battalion was part of the 152nd Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division and after the War an impressive Memorial was raised in its commemoration. It was erected in Newfoundland Park on the Somme overlooking “Y” Ravine which was taken when the Division stormed the strong German positions in Beaumont Hamel on the 13th November 1916. A plaque on the Memorial reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On The Day Of Battle”. the other photos show Scottish troops on the Somme and the colour image is of a peaceful Somme landscape today ” with no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.