Private Frank Burnett

Private Frank Burnett, 6th( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in France, aged 24, on 14th July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Duns and was the son of  James Burnett of 13 Newtown Street, Duns and the husband of Maggie Hutton of Victoria Place Bridge of Allan and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France. On that day the Battalion acted as carriers of water, bombs and ammunition under heavy fire to the Battalions attacking Longueval which was eventually captured. Before enlisting in July 1915 he had worked as a fishmonger in Port Street, Stirling. He joined his Battalion in France in October 1915 and served in the Lewis gun section. His elder brother had been killed earlier that year. The photographs show Scottish troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.