Private William Bookless

Private William Bookless, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli, aged 27, on the 12th July 1915 during the ” Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been born in Swinton and was the son of John and Mary Bookless of Swinton and the husband of Lizzie Bookless of Auchencrow, Reston. He had been working as a mole trapper when he enlisted in December 1914. 12th July became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as only 70 unwounded men answered evening roll call out of the over 700 Officers and Men who had begun the attack. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons that day (The author’s great uncle Jim Murray was slightly wounded and spent 6 weeks in hospital in Alexandria before returning to the Peninsula or the “Pen” as he called it). The first photo shows Achi Baba, marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second shows the Borderers ” going over the top” at Gallipoli and the third shows the battlefield in 1922.

 

 

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