Rifleman Thomas Laidlaw

Rifleman Thomas Laidlaw, 1st/8th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles). He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 35, on the 20th September 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres. He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of William and Isabella Laidlaw of Island Street, Galashiels and the husband of Marion Laidlaw of Wool Market, Berwick-upon-Tweed. He had been employed as a postman in Galashiels and from 1912 in Berwick. He enlisted in early 1915 and joined his Battalion in France in November 1915. He is buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium where his Headstone is inscribed ” Ever Fondly Remembered By His Loving Wife M.L.”. The photos show the atrocious condition of the battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile Flanders drainage systems.