Corporal George Dougal

Corporal George Leith Dougal, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in Palestine on 19th April 1917 during the Second Battle of Gaza aged 24. He had been born in Eyemouth and was the son of Elizabeth and the late David Dougal of Northburn, Eyemouth and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial. He had been employed in his father’s fish curing business and was a member of the Territorial K.O.S.B.  The Battalion was mobilised in August 1914 and went to Gallipoli in June 1915.  He was wounded during the “Charge” on the 12th July 1915 but returned to the Battalion to serve in Egypt and Palestine.  On 19th April the Battalion suffered 213 casualties with 50 fatalities, ( including 6 Officers) in the attack on the Turkish positions on ” Outpost Hill”. Gallantly led by Major Wattie Forrest of Kelso the Redoubt was captured but the losses meant there were too few men to hold the position and with ammunition exhausted the remnants were forced to retreat to the British lines just as fresh reserves with ammunition were coming up. Major Forrest was mortally wounded on the Turkish parapet. The photographs show the Borderers in Palestine in 1917.