Private John Linton

Private John Keddie Linton, 2nd Battalion, Otago Regiment, New Zealand Infantry. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 24, on the 12th October 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres. He had been born in Uphall, West Lothian and was the son of the late Archibald Linton ( farm manager near Broxburn )and Margaret Linton who latterly lived at Heatherlie Terrace, Selkirk. He studied Science at Edinburgh University from 1910-1912 and agriculture at the East of Scotland College of Agriculture before emigrating to New Zealand in 1913. He worked as a ploughman at Manuka Creek, South Island before enlisting in May 1916 and he joined his Battalion in France in March 1917. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium. ( His brother Alexander had been awarded the Military Cross with the Royal Scots for conspicuous gallantry at Hill 70 on the 26th September 1915 during the Battle of Loos ). The photos give an idea of the atrocious conditions underfoot caused by the incessant shelling which had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems.

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