Private George Allan

Private George Murray Allan, 2nd, Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France during the Battle of the Somme  on 9th September 1916 aged 33. He had been born in Paxton and was the second son of William and Janet Allan of Paxton and is buried in Le Touret Military Cemetery, France where his Headstone is inscribed ” Peace Perfect Peace”. Before the war he had been apprenticed to Mr John Schooler of Paxton and went on to work as a joiner on the Ladykirk Estate.  He had originally enlisted in the K.O.S.B. in December 1915 but was posted to the R.S.F. in France in June 1916. The autumn rains turned the shell battered ground into a glutinous quagmire which made movement of guns and men very difficult as can be seen from the photographs. The colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.