Private James Renwick

Private James Miller Renwick, ” B “Company, 7th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action on 25th September 1915 on the first day of the Battle of Loos and in the same action as Private Alder above, aged 22.. He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of Mr and Mrs Robert Renwick  of  Todrig, Hume and Stichell East Field, Kelso and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.  He had enlisted in September 1914 and landed in France with his Battalion in July 1915. This was the action in which Piper Daniel Laidlaw won the Victoria Cross. The British gas ( used for the first time )  had blown back and unsettled the men in the trenches.  Laidlaw got up out of the trench amidst a storm of shot and shell pulled up his gas hood and marched along the parapet playing ” Blue Bonnets”. The men rallied and charged capturing their objective which was the Lens Road Redoubt but with severe casualties of over 600 killed and wounded out of 950.  Despite being twice wounded Laidlaw survived the War. The photograph shows an actual assault with the troops disappearing into a ghostly cloud of gas and smoke. There is an excellent account of the Battle on  “The Long Long Trail ” Website. The final photo shows Piper Laidlaw in later years at an Armistice Day commemoration. The artist’s nightmarish illustration depicts an attack at Loos with the troops wearing their gas hoods and using primitive grenades.