Sergeant John Weir

Sergeant John Stark Weir, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Black Watch. He was killed in France on 21st July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, aged 19. He had been born in 1897 in Heriot, Midlothian and was the son of William and Jane Weir of Roselea, Oxton and the brother of Robert Weir above.  He is buried in Danzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France. At that time the Battalion was in reserve in trenches in Mametz Wood and suffered from intermittent shelling which cost 2 Officers wounded with 3 Other Ranks killed and 51 wounded. Sergeant Weir was one of the fatalities. His Headstone is inscribed ” Abide With Me “. The photograph shows the Memorial raised to commemorate the 51st ( Highland ) Division of which the Battalion was part. It was erected in Newfoundland Park on the Somme overlooking “Y” Ravine which was taken when the Division stormed and captured the very strong German positions in Beaumont Hamel on the 13th November 1916.  A plaque in Gaelic on the Memorial reads ” Friends Are Good On The Day Of Battle “. The other photographs show Scottish troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with “no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.