Sergeant John McGuinness

Sergeant John Clair McGuinness, 4th Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in Germany, aged 32, on the 9th April 1945. He had been born in Airdrie and was the son of Bridget and the late Thomas McGuinness of 54 Bankend South, Jedburgh and the husband of Agnes McGuinness of Dundee whom he had married in Jedburgh in 1937. He had worked for the North British Rayon Company in Jedburgh and played football for Jed Amateurs before the family moved to Dundee. He had been a member of the Territorial K.O.S.B. and was mobilised in September 1939. He had taken part in ” Operation Infatuate”, the landings and capture of Walcheren at the mouth of the River Scheldt in November 1944. He fell in the fighting at the River Weser which cost the Battalion 51 casualties and he is buried in Becklingen War Cemetery, Germany where his Headstone is inscribed ” He Died That We Might Live. May He rest In Peace. All Who Loved Him”. The photos show the Borderers in North West Europe in early 1945.