Lance Corporal Adam Smith

Lance Corporal Adam Stevenson Smith, 12th ( Service ) Battalion Royal Scots. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 19, on 11th April 1918. He had been born in Melrose to William and Agnes Smith of Darnick, Melrose and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium. He had originally enlisted in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers but had been sent to the 5th Entrenching Battalion in France from where he was posted to the Royal Scots. ( An entrenching Battalion was a temporary Unit used as pools of men from which drafts of replacements could be drawn by Infantry Battalions ). He fell during the Battle of the Lys which was a part of the German Spring Offensives. The Battalion were holding trenches near “White Chateau” near Hollebeke in the face of strong German attacks and suffered casualties from shelling and sniper fire. Casualties for that period of the Battle between 4th-21st April were 39 Other Ranks killed and 6 Officers and 111 Other Ranks wounded. In addition 8 Other Ranks were posted missing. The photographs show British troops in makeshift defensive positions awaiting further German advances.