Private Andrew McBain

Private Andrew Chisholm Inglis McBain, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Black Watch. He was killed in Belgium, aged 26, on the 19th September 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres. He had been born in Selkirk in 1891 and was the son of Alexander and Elizabeth of Meigle Perthshire. He was the grandson of the late Andrew McBain of  Tower Terrace, Selkirk. and is buried in Cement House Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium where his Headstone is inscribed ” Father In thy Gracious Keeping Here We Leave Our Loved Son Sleeping “. At that time the Battalion was in front line trenches near Ypres and suffered a few casualties from shellfire. The Battalion was part of the 153rd Brigade in the 51st ( Highland ) Division and after the War a very impressive Memorial was raised in commemoration. It was erected in Newfoundland Park on the Somme overlooking “Y” ravine which was taken when on 13th November 1916 the Division stormed and captured the very strong German positions in the village of Beaumont Hamel. A plaque on the Memorial reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On the Day Of Battle “. The photographs give an idea of the atrocious conditions of the Battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems.