Private Daniel Delaney

Private Daniel Delaney, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed at Gallipoli on the 12th July 1915, aged 19, during the “Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in 1896 in Ireland and was the son of Maggie Delaney of Buccleuch Roads, Selkirk He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been employed at the Philliphaugh Mill in Selkirk and was a Territorial with the 4th K.O.S.B.. He mobilised with his Battalion in August 1914 and went to Gallipoli with them as a signaller in June 1915. That fateful day became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as at evening roll call only 70 unwounded men answered out of the over 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons that day, Both Colonel McNeile from Bowden and his Adjutant from Newstead were posted missing presumed killed. The first photo shows the Borderers ” going over the top” at Gallipoli and the second shows Achi Baba, the objective of the attack, marked with a cross. The third shows the battlefield in 1922.