Sergeant John Deans

Sergeant John Hamilton Graham Deans, 1st Battalion, Black Watch. He was killed in action in France, aged 26, on the 25th September 1916 and is buried in the A.I.F. Burial Ground, Flers, Somme, France. He had been born in Heidelberg, Transvaal and was the son of John and Elizabeth Deans of Bethal, Transvaal, South Africa and the Grandson of William Romanes of Croft Street, Galashiels. He had been an Honorary Lieutenant in the Transvaal Cadets and had served in the German South West Africa campaign. He arrived in Plymouth in June 1915 and enlisted in the Black Watch joining his Battalion in France in august 1915. He fell in an attack near Flers in suppport of the New Zealand Division which cost the Battalion 2 Officers and 35 Other Ranks killed and 1 Officer and 74 Other Ranks wounded. ( His brother William also fell during the War – see above). His Headstone is inscribed “The Day Thou Gavest Lord Is Ended”. The photos show Scots troops on the Somme with the colour image showing a peaceful Somme landscape today.