Lance Corporal George Buchan

Lance Corporal George Buchan, 10th ( Service ) Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He was killed in action in France, age 20, on the 25th September 1915 on the first day of the Battle of Loos. He had been born in 1894 in Tillicoultry and was the son of John and Mary Buchan of 10A Mavis Bank, Selkirk. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. Before enlisting in August 1914 he had been employed in a Selkirk woollen mill. Originally he was posted to the 1st Battalion, Argylls after which he was evacuated to England in March 1915 with frostbite. He returned to France in June to join the 10th Battalion which was part of the 9th ( Scottish ) Division. The first photograph shows Highlanders marching up to the line at Loos. The second shows an actual attack at Loos with the troops advancing through a ghostly cloud of gas and smoke and the third shows the village of Loos after its capture. The artist’s illustration shows a Battalion attack at Loos led by its pipers.