Private Jerry Elkins

Private Jeremiah James Elkins, 1st Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in France, aged 32, on the 28th January 1917 and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, France. He had been born in 1884 in Farnham, Hampshire and was the son of Jeremiah and Louise Elkins of Farnham. He was the husband of Mary Elkins of 16 Ettrick Road, Selkirk whom he had married in Selkirk in 1909. Originally he had enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps but before the outbreak of the War he had been employed as a mill worker in Selkirk and had enlisted in Galashiels. At the time of his death the Battalion were in trenches in the Le Transloy sector of the Somme front. During this time the Battalion suffered 50 Other Rank casualties through shellfire before coming out of the line on the 30th January.