Lance Corporal Adam Robson Moyes, 16th ( 2nd Edinburgh City ) Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed in action in France, aged 22, on the 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Jedburgh and was the son of James and Isabella Moyes of Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. ( His brother James Moyes also fell – see below ). Before enlisting in December 1914 he had been a butcher in Tollcross, Edinburgh and had played football for the Edinburgh Nomads. He landed in France with his Battalion in January 1916. He fell in the attack at Contalmaison which failed to reach its objectives with heavy loss due to intense machine gun fire from La Boiselle. 3 Officers were killed and 3 were posted missing with 6 wounded. Other Rank casualties were 460 in killed wounded and missing. The Battalion had been raised in Edinburgh by Sir George McCrae in November 1914 and originally was made up from professional footballers and supporters from Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dunfermline, Falkirk and Raith Rovers. In addition were players and supporters from such amateur sides as Dalkeith Thistle, Linlithgow Rose, Newtongrange Star, Pumpherston Rangers and West End Athletic. The first photo shows troops advancing across a wide and coverless “no mans land” on 1st July and the second shows a peaceful Somme landscape today ” with no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”. He is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.
