Lieutenant Francis Renton

Lieutenant Francis Wallace Home Renton, 8th ( Service ) Battalion, Border Regiment. He was killed in action in France during the Battle of the Somme on 30th August 1916, aged 29. He was the son of Maria and the late Brigadier Surgeon David Renton, M.D.( 15th Hussars ) of Chester House, Eyemouth  and is buried in Blighty Valley Cemetery, Authille Wood, Somme ,France. He was a native of Edinburgh and a first XV rugby cap was gained at Sedburgh School, Sedburgh, Yorkshire. He then studied medicine at Edinburgh University before emigrating to Rhodesia and then Ceylon before returning home to gain a commission in December 1914. The photos show troops on the Somme. The colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.