Captain Robert Robertson Morrison Lumgair, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in Palestine, aged 26, on the 19th April 1917 during the Second Battle of Gaza. He had been born in Melrose in 1890 and was the son of the late Andrew of the Priory, Selkirk and Isabella Lumgair of Eildon View, Galashiels. He was the husband of Gladys Lumgair of Rosalee, Hawick and he is buried in Gaza War Cemetery, Gaza, Palestine. He had been educated at Oatlands College, Harrogate and Uppingham College, Rutland and was employed as a director of the woollen manufacturers Gibson and Lumgair of St Mary’s Mill, Selkirk. He joined the Territorials and was commissioned in February 1915 and went to Gallipoli with the Battalion in June 1915. In June 1916 he was promoted Captain and he fell during the attack on the strong Turkish positions on ” Outpost Hill”. The attack gallantly led by Major Forrest from Kelso, captured the redoubt but in the face of fierce Turkish counter attacks and with increasing casualties and shortage of ammunition a retirement had to be effected. 6 Officers and 44 Other Ranks were killed and 9 Officers and 152 Other Ranks were wounded. Captain Lumgair was wounded in the initial assault and a Sergeant Waugh from Jedburgh lifted the wounded Captain but he was hit again this time mortally. After the War his wife, Gladys and the widow of Captain Cochrane who had also fallen in the Battle visited their husband’s graves which lay side by side., Later on their return to Scotland they gifted a ward to a local hospital in Gaza in memory of their respective husbands. His Headstone is inscribed ” Of Selkirk, Scotland He That Believeth In Me Hath Everlasting Life”. The photos show Borderers in Palestine in 1917.
