Private Gideon Lees

Private Gideon Lees, 8th ( Service ) Battalion, Black Watch. He was killed in action, aged 23, in France on the 18th July 1916 during the Battle of The Somme. He had been born in 1896 in Earlston and was the son of Alexander and Jessie Lees of 54 Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France. Before enlisting he had been employed in the milling house of Gardiner’s Mill. Selkirk. He fell in the fierce fighting around the village of Longueval which eventually captured in conjunction with the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. The Battalion advanced further to Delville Wood but was outflanked and forced to retire with heavy losses the Battalion strength being reduced to 6 Officers and 165 Other Ranks, The photos show Scottish troops during the Battle and the colour image depicts a peaceful Somme landscape today with ” no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”