Corporal George Purves

Corporal George Purves, 6th ( Service ) Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. He died in France on 30th September 1916 of wounds received in the Battle of the Somme, aged 24. He was the son of William and Mary Purves of Thornton, Berwick-upon-Tweed and is buried in Contay British Cemetery, Contay, Somme, France. His Headstone is inscribed ” Greater Love Hath No Man Than This That He Give His Life For His Friends “. The Battalion was part of the 11th ( Northern ) Division and had just taken part in the Battle of Flers-Coucelette. He had already seen service at Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles and in Egypt and had never had home leave since enlisting. Before the war he had been employed as a gardener with the Earl of Mar and Kellie at Alloa. This was the battle in which tanks first played a part and the other photos show troops on the Somme with the colour image showing a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.