Corporal James Laidlaw

Corporal James Andrew Laidlaw, 17th (Service) Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed in action in France, aged 24, on the 27th July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of Thomas and Alice Laidlaw of 1 Roxburgh Street, Galashiels. He had been employed as a millworker when he enlisted in April 1915 landing with his Battalion in France in February 1916. At that time the Battalion was in trenches near Bernafay Wood and suffered casualties from shellfire. The photos show Scottish troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.