Private James Currie

Private James Currie, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Galipoli, aged 23, on the 12th July 1915 during the “Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in Selkirk in 1892 and was the son of James and the late Elizabeth Currie of 44 Buccleuch Street, Selkirk and he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. 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 her sons that day. ( The author’s Great Uncle Corporal Jim Murray was slightly wounded and spent 6 weeks in hospital in Alexandria before returning to Gallipoli or “the Pen” as he called it). 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.