Private Peter Spence

Private Peter Spence, 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action on the Somme on 3rd September 1916 aged 25. He had been born in Bonkyl, Berwickshire and was the son of Robert Spence of West Foulden Mains, Berwickshire and is buried in Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, France. He fell in the heroic but  disastrous attack on Falfemount Farm .A promised French bombardment  failed to materialize as did the French infantry attack. The K.O.S.B. went in alone and unsupported in broad daylight and suffered heavily. 8 Officers were killed and 3 wounded. Other Rank casualties were 146 killed and 137 wounded. Before the war he had been working at Foulden New Mains and had enlisted under the Derby Scheme. He was well known in local church circles and was heavily involved with the Erskine Church in Chirnside. ( Battalion Diary was very terse in its comments on the French failures ). The photos show troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas ,no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.