Private Robert Mitchell

Private Robert Mitchell, 1st/8th ( Territorial) Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed in action in France on 11th April 1918, aged 25, during the German Spring Offensive on the River Lys. He had been born in Megget and was the son of James and Margaret Mitchell of Henderland, Cappercleuch, Yarrow and he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. He had joined his Battalion in France in August 1915. At On the 11th April the 9th ( Scottish )( Division’s front was under continuous and intense pressure from the advancing Germans and the Battalion’s positions south of the Ypres-Comines canal were subjected to heavy shelling with many casualties. On the 11th a German attack on the positions of the 11th and 12th Royal Scots was repulsed and it may have been here that Private Mitchell fell. Between the 4th and 21st April the Battalion casualties amounted to 1 Officer and 10 Other Ranks killed with 3 Officers and 54 Other Ranks wounded. In addition 69 Other Ranks were reported missing although some of these may have been taken prisoner. The photographs show Allied troops preparing to resist the oncoming Germans.