Private Thomas Douglas

Private Thomas Douglas, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli, aged 36, on the 12th July 1915 during the “Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in Selkirk in 1879 and was the son of the late Moses and Marion Douglas. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had enlisted in the K.O.S.B. in 1900 and served in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War in that year. He was discharged in November 1900 and returned to Selkirk where he lived with his sisters in 35 Mill Street, Selkirk and was employed as a warehouseman. ( His brother William also fell- see below ). In 1914 he re-enlisted in 1914 in the Territorials and went with them to Gallipoli in June 1915. 12th July became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as out of 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 the Borderers “going over the top” at Gallipoli and the second shows Achi Baba, the objective of the attack, marked with a cross. The third shows the battlefield in 1922.

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