Private James Fairbairn

Private James Fairbairn, 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. He died of wounds on 15th October 1916  received in action during the Battle of the Somme and is buried in Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, Somme, France. He had been born in Lowick and had enlisted in Berwick-upon-Tweed. His Battalion had taken part in a local attack on the 12th October with 275 casualties and he may have been wounded here. The autumn rains however turned the ground into a glutinous quagmire which made movement very difficult and the colour photo shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.