Corporal Robert Herkes

Corporal Robert Herkes, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards. He was killed in action in France , aged 20, on the 17th October 1915 during the Battle of Loos. He had been born at Rutherford near Maxton, Roxburghshire in 1895 and was the son of Robert and Isabella Herkes of Sunderland Farm Cottages, Selkirk and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. He had been employed on Sunderland farm when he enlisted and joined his Battalion in France in June 1915. He fell in the attack on the “Little Willie” trench and the northern half of the strong German positions in the Hoenzollern Redoubt. Some ground was gained but the men ran out of grenades and were ordered to consolidate the captured ground. Total casualties were 136 killed, wounded and missing. The first photo shows shells bursting on the Redoubt and the second shows troops fusing bombs for the assault.