Private William Brown

Private William Renwick Brown, 6th (Service) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He died in France, aged 21, as a Prisoner of War on 4th May 1917 of wounds received during the Battle of Arras and is buried in Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. (This cemetery is named after a cafe which had stood on this spot until destroyed by German shellfire early in the War). He had been born in Lauder and was the son of Robert Renwick and Jane Brown. He was wounded and taken prisoner in the disastrous night attack on “Greenland Hill” on the 3rd of May which cost the Battalion the best part of three Companies , 416 Officers and Other Ranks. The barrage was weak and ineffectual and the troops on either side of the K.O.S.B. did not go forward allowing the enemy to outflank and cut off the attackers. Only some 50 men returned to British lines under cover of darkness. The photos show troops during the Battle. The colour photograph is the 9th Scottish Division Memorial which commemorated the Division’s part in the Battle. It originally stood beside the remnants of a German blockhouse captured by the battalion at Arras but due to heavy traffic on the nearby road it was moved to the Pointe de Jour Military Cemetery near Arras.