Lance Corporal George Lockie

Lance Corporal George Edgar Lockie, 45th Battalion, Australian Infantry. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 29, on the 7th June 1917 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He was born in Selkirk in 1887 and was the son of the late George and Mrs Helen Lockie of Forest Road and then 38A Curror Street, Selkirk. He had emigrated to Australia and enlisted in April 1915 at Liverpool, New South Wales. He was sent to Gallipoli where he contracted influenza. He was considered unfit for further service and posted to a Training Battalion in Egypt from where he was posted to the 45th Battalion in France in June 1916. (At some time he must have been passed fit again for Active Service ) It is likely he fell during the Battle of Messines which was fought between the 7th and 14th June 1917 and involved his battalion which suffered heavy casualties in the capture of the Messines Ridge. The photos were taken during the Battle. The final photo shows soldiers looking down into the mine craters caused by the destruction o the Messines Ridge.