Captain James Corbet Lang, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 12th July 1915 during the ” Charge ” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in Montreal the son of the Reverend Gavin and Mrs Frances Lang of Inverness and was the husband of Mary Lang of Hazeldean, Newstead and later Moira Cottage, Colinton, Edinburgh. He had been a member of the Black Watch during the second Anglo-Boer War. In 1900 he had been commissioned into the K.O.S.B. On that fateful day Captain Lang ( who was also the Battalion Adjutant ) was by the side of Colonel McNeile when the leading waves of the attack reached the non existent line of Turkish trenches. Both men realised the perilous position and shouted to the men to retire to the captured second trench and consolidate. Neither men made it and they were reported missing believed killed. The bodies were not recovered. Captain Lang is now commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been transferred into the Territorials to give the Battalion an experienced Regular Officer. The first photo shows Achi Baba, the objective, marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second shows the Borderers attacking at Gallipoli and the third shows the battlefield in 1922.
