Private John Anderson

Private John Anderson Rodger, 10th ( Service ) Battalion, Cameronians. He was killed in action in France, aged 21, on the 25th September 1915 on the first day of the Battle of Loos. He had been born in Selkirk in 1894 and was the son of Matthew and Christina Rodger of General’s Bridge Lodge, Bowhill, Selkirk. and he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner, Loos, France. Before enlisting he had been employed as an apprentice gardener at Phillipshaugh, Selkirk. The photo shows troops advancing through a ghostly cloud of gas and smoke. This was the first time the British Army had used gas in the War. The second shows the village of Loos after capture. The artist’s nightmarish illustration tries to depict an attack at Loos with the troops wearing their gas hoods.

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