Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ballard

Lieutenant Charles Naesmyth Bruere Ballard, Royal Field Artillery. He died on Active Service in France on 11th February 1915 aged 46. He was the son of the late George ( ex Madras Civil Service ) and Julia Ballard of Phillipburn, Selkirk and is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France where his Headstone is inscribed ” Because I Live Ye Shall Also, John X1V. 19 “. He died in the 27th Stationary Hospital in Boulogne from complications after an operation. He had been born in 1869 and was educated at Charterhouse School before attending the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and being commissioned Second Lieutenant in 1888. He was promoted Captain in 1898 and then Major. During the Second Anglo Boer war he served with Bethune’s Mounted Rifles. He went to France with the B.E.F. in August 1914 as a Lieutenant Colonel with the 15th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. The R.F.A. used the 18 pounder field gun in an an anti infantry role using both high explosive and shrapnel shell one of which is shown below