Private William Fairbairn

Private William Waters Fairbairn, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards. He died in hospital from wounds suffered  in France on the 29th September 1916 during the battle of the Somme, aged 32  He had been born at Hownam, Roxburghshire and was the second son of  Robert and Ellen Fairbairn of Palace Farm, Crailing and Jedfoot Lodge, Jedburgh. He had worked in Wales as a gardener before enlisting in Jedburgh in June 1915. He was wounded by shellfire and died in hospital in Etaples. He is buried in Etaples Militay Cemetery, Etaples, Pas de Calais, France. On the 15th September the Germans had counter attacked the Battalion positions near Guillemont and Private Fairbairn was severely wounded in the legs by a shell burst. The photos show troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.

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