Sergeant Robert Thomson

Sergeant  Robert Philip Thomson 9th ( Service ) Battalion, Rifle Brigade ( Prince Consort’s Own ). He was killed in action, aged 31, on 15th September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France.  He had been born in Connington, Huntingtonshire and was the son of Anne Thomson  and the late William Thomson of High Street, Greenlaw.  He had been educated at Dunstable Grammar School before training as a land Surveyor and Surveyor and then as an engineer in Glasgow. In 1906 he had gone to Chile and had been working as an engineer on the railways in Chile and Ecuador  when he returned to enlist in August 1915 going to France in April 1916. He fell in the assault on the strong German positions at Flers where tanks were used for the first time in battle. At this time despite being very slow and still mechanically unreliable they greatly assisted the infantry onto their objectives in some areas. ( 9th Battalion was part of the 41st Brigade of the 14th ( Light ) Division until July 1918 when it was reduced to Cadre ). The photos show troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme today.