Lance Corporal Thomas Macdonald

Lance Corporal Thomas Harveson Macdonald, 7th/8th ( Service ) battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action in France, aged 23, on the 1st August 1918. He had been born in Arbroath in 1895 and was the brother of Mary Henderson of Raeburn Place, Selkirk. He came to Selkirk from Arbroath in 1910 and was employed at Forest Mill when he enlisted as a Territorial with the 4th Battalion, K.O.S.B. He was mobilised with them in August 1914 and went to Gallipoli with them in June 1915. After his term of service expired he re-enlisted and joined the 7th/8th K.O.S.B. in France. Originally he was buried in Dommiers British Cemetery but after the War he was re-interred and buried in Vauxbuin French National Cemetery. His Headstone is inscribed ” Greater Love Hath No Man Than This That A Man Lay Down His Life For His Friends “. On 1st August the Battalion in conjunction with French forces fought a pitched battle which resulted in several casualties including 2 Officers killed. At the time the battalion was only 260 strong.