Private Robert Johnstone

Private Robert Heard Johnstone, 1st/4th ( Border) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He died from wounds in hospital in Alexandria, aged 21, on the 1st May 1917. He is buried in Alexandria ( Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt where His headstone is inscribed ” He With His Brother Alex ( Gallipoli) Died That We Might Live”. ( His brother Alexander also fell during the War – see above ). He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of C.S.M. William and the late Mary Johnstone of 28 Market Street, Galashiels. He had landed with the Battalion at Gallipoli in June 1915 and served in Egypt and then Palestine. It is likely he was wounded during the Second Battle of Gaza when the Battalion attacked the Turkish positions on “Outpost hill” suffering 213 casualties in killed and wounded. The photos show the Borderers in Palestine in 1917.