Private John Blackadder

Private John Blackadder, 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed at St.Eloi in Belgium on 23rd March 1916, aged 25. He had been born in Mertoun and was the son of Mr and Mrs John Blackadder of Broomhall, Mertoun and is buried in Dickebusch New Military Cemetery, Belgium. Before enlisting in May 1915 he had been employed on the Mertoun Estate as a forester. At that time the Battalion were holding front line trenches at the ” Bluff ” , a very unwholesome part of the Ypres Salient and always under intermittent shellfire. The trenches were waterlogged and the weather so bad that more than 200 men were evacuated to hospital suffering from exhaustion and trench feet. ( His brother William also fell. See above for details ).

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