Private James McVittie

Private James McVittie, 6th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed action in France, aged 22, on 25th September 1915 on the first day of the Battle of Loos. He was the son of the late Robert and Elizabeth McVittie formerly of Dingleton, Melrose and is commemorated at Dud Corner, Loos, France. Before enlisting he had been employed as a butcher in Melrose. The Battalion was tasked to capture the village of Haisnes. This was 3,000 yards from the jump off trenches with the almost impregnable Hoenzollern redoubt, bristling with machine guns, in the way. Not only that but hidden wire entanglements and a weak supporting artillery barrage meant an almost impossible task. And so it proved. No Officer was unwounded with 11 Killed and 8 Wounded. Of Other Ranks 358 were killed or missing and 272 wounded or gassed. Pipe Major Robert MacKenzie, who was 60 years old, piped the men out of the trenches and later died of his wounds and surely deserved the Victoria Cross but received nothing. This fatal attack nearly destroyed the Battalion and was a perfect example of poor tactics and incompetent command resulting in the deaths of many fine Borderers. The photo shows part of the battlefield looking towards the German positions with shells bursting on their trenches and the second shows an actual assault with the troops disappearing into the gas clouds which the British Army had used for the first time in the War.