Major Hugh Cochrane

Major Hugh Paterson Cochrane, 1st/8th (Territorial ) Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers attd 2nd/5th (Territorial) Lancashire Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 39, on the 20th September 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres. He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of Jessie and the late Adam Cochrane of Fernieknowe, Galashiels and the husband of Annie Cochrane of Elmbank, Galashiels. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium. He had been educated at Merchiston School, Edinburgh and was the sole partner on J.&W. Cochrane, Mid Mill, Galashiels. He had had a long association with the Territorial forces and had been commissioned into the Roxburgh and Selkirk Volunteer Rifles in 1898. When the 4th K.O.S.B. was formed in 1908 he was appointed Captain.. In June 1915 he was promoted to Major and given command of a Battalion in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He returned to a training post in August 1916 but re-joined the Fusiliers in Flanders. The photos attempt show the atrocious conditions in Flanders during the Battle where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile drainage systems and heavy rains turned much of the ground into a swamp.