Corporal Robert Wilson

Corporal Robert John Spence Wilson, 7th/8th ( Service ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in France, aged 26, on 9th April 1917 in the attack towards Feuchy on the first day of the Battle of Arras and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Arras, France. The day’s objectives were secured and 16 artillery pieces were captured at a cost of 5 Officers and 120 Other Ranks. Before enlisting he had been employed as a gardener. ( The C.W.G.C. site has his rank as Private). He had been born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. The photographs show British troops accompanied by a “wee pal ” in the main street of a captured village near Arras antd one of the artillery pieces captured. After the War it was put on display outside Hawick Museum.