Lieutenant Leonard Robertson M.C.

Lieutenant Leonard Dougal Robertson, M.C. 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers.  He was killed in action against the Turks in Palestine on 13th November 1917 aged 33. He had been born in Eyemouth and was the son of Alexander and Jane Robertson of Market Square, Eyemouth and Eastfield Cottage, Dunbar. He is buried in Ramleh War Cemetery, Palestine. His headstone is inscribed ” Native of Eyemouth, Scotland”. He fell in the successful assault on El Mughar as part of a general attack towards Jerusalem. The Battalion suffered casualties of 4 Officers killed and 9 wounded with 31 Other Ranks killed and 138 wounded. After some ferocious hand to hand combat hundreds of Turks were captured along with several artillery pieces and machine guns. He had been educated at the Berwickshire High School and the Royal High School of Edinburgh. He had begun his working life with the Commercial Bank in Eyemouth before going to Chile to work for the Anglo-South American Bank. On the outbreak of War he had returned home and enlisted into the Lothian and Border Horse before being Gazetted as a Second Lieutenant in the K.O.S.B.  His award of the Military Cross was announced in December 1917. The photographs show Borderers at Ramleh in late 1917.