Company Sergeant Major William Clapperton

Company Sergeant Major William Clapperton, 9th (Service) Battalion, Cameronians. He was killed in action in France, aged 44, on the 6th July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of John and the late Mary Clapperton and the husband of Mary Clapperton of 22 Parkhead Street, Motherwell. He had been employed as a groom when he enlisted as a Regular soldier in the Cameron Highlanders in 1891 serving in Malta, Sudan, Egypt and South Africa before transferring to the Reserve in 1902. He went to Motherwell and was working in the Dazell Steel Works when war broke out. He re-enlisted in the Cameronians and landed with the battalion in France in May 1915. As an experienced “old soldier” he was rapidly promoted to C.S.M. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. The photos show Scots troops on the Somme.