Private Alexander Fair

Private Alexander Fair, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 12th July 1915, aged 19 during the ” Charge ” on the three lines of Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He was the son of Peter and Isabella Gray of Victoria Cottages, Sprouston, Kelso and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial,Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. That fateful day became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as at evening roll call only 70 unwounded men answered out of the 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack. The contemporary photograph shows Achi Baba marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second photo shows the Borderers going into the attack at Gallipoli and the third shows the Battlefield in 1922.

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