Captain George Houston-Boswall

Captain Sir George Reginald Houston- Boswall, Bart., 2nd” Coy”. 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards. He was a regular soldier and  was killed in action in France on 27th September 1915, aged 37.  He fell in the attack on the “Chalk Pits” during the Battle of Loos and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France.  He had been born in Edinburgh and was the son of the late George and Phoebe Houston-Boswall of Blackadder, Edrom. He was the fourth Baronet and succeeded his father in 1908 as the male heir of the ancient family of Houstouns of Cotrioch, heritable baillies of the Barony of Busbie, Wigton and of Calderhall, Midlothian.The family seats are at Blackadder, Edrom and Allanbank, Berwick. Sir George held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Berwickshire and his heir was his brother Captain Thomas Randolph Houstoun Boswell serving with the 13th Battalion, Royal Scots.  He had been educated at Eton and was commissioned into the 4th Argyll and Sutherland militia in November 1895 and transferred to the Grenadier Guards in May 1900. He had served in the Boer War and had retired in 1906 to settle down on his estate. He volunteered for service on the outbreak of war and went to France with his Battalion on 15th August 1915 in time to take part in the Battle of Loos. His body was never found. He had married in London in 1913, Naomi Veronica Anstey daughter of the late Colonel Thomas Anstey, R.E. and had two daughters Sheila and Elizabeth. The photo shows the village of Loos after its capture and the artist’s nightmarish illustration depicts the troops in their gas hoods and using primitive grenades.

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