Private John Anderson

Private John Anderson, 5th/6th ( Territorial) Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed in action in France, aged 19, on the 8th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive on the Somme. He was the son of Andrew and Anna of Garnescleugh, Ettrick and 4 Roxburgh Street, Galashiels and is buried in Bienvilliers Military Cemetery. He had enlisted in the Scottish Rifles in February 1917 and was then posted to the Royal Scots in France in February 1918. Before enlisting he had been employed as a farmworker. The Battalion had captured the village of Ayette on the 2nd/3rd April and held it despite harassing machine gun fire. This period cost 43 casualties in killed and wounded. The photographs show Allied troops preparing to resist the advancing Germans.

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