Private Robert Gillie

Private Robert Gillie, 1st/4th ( Ross Highland Territorial ) Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in action in France, aged 28, on 24th April 1917 during the Battle of Arras and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France.  He had been born in Eyemouth and was the son of Catherine and the late Robert Gillie of Fowler’s Court, Eyemouth.  Before enlisting in September 1915 he had been a fisherman. He had originally joined the 1st/6th Battalion but in France he was posted to the 1st/4th Battalion. The Battalion was part of the 152nd Brigade in the 51st ( Highland) Division. He had been born in Eyemouth and had enlisted in Glasgow. The photograph shows a group of Seaforths checking a dugout in a captured German trench near Arras. The colour photo shows the impressive memorial raised to the 51st ( Highland ) Division of which the Battalion was part after early 1916. It was erected in Newfoundland Park on the Somme overlooking “Y” Ravine which was captured in November 1916 when the Division stormed and took the strong German positions of Beaumont Hamel. A plaque on the Memorial reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On The Day Of Battle”.

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