Private John Tait

Private John Tait, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli, aged 20, on the 12th July 1915 during the ” Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in Hawick in 1895 and was the son of James and Helen Tait of 5 Halliday’s Park, Selkirk and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been a member of the Territorials and was mobilised with the Battalion in August 1914, landing on Gallipoli with the rest of the 52nd ( Lowland ) Division on the 15th June 1915. The 12th July became known as the ” Black Day of the Borders” as out of the over 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack only 70 unwounded men answered evening roll call. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons that fateful day.  The first photo shows Achi Baba, the objective, which dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second photo shows the Borderers ” going over the top” at Gallipoli and the third shows the battlefield taken in 1922.