Private Thomas Buckham

Private Thomas Buckham, 16th ( Service ) Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 19, on the 16th April 1918 during the German Spring offensive on the River Lys. He had been born in Selkirk in 1899 and was the son of William and Jessie Buckham of 10 Ettrick Road, Selkirk. He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Flanders, Belgium. Before enlisting in January 1917 he had been employed as an apprentice warehouseman and had only joined his Battalion on 1st April two weeks before being killed. The 16th Royal Scots was known as ” McRae’s Battalion after Sir George McRae who had founded it in November 1914. Originally it had comprised professional footballers and their fans from Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline. By 1918 however few of the originals were left. The Battalion was in the thick of very heavy fighting in trying to hold back the Germans and this period cost the Battalion 12 Officers and 554 Other Ranks in killed wounded and missing out of a total strength of 785. The photographs show Allied troops in defensive positions preparing to resist the Germans.