Private Thomas Thomson

Private Thomas Thomson, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action, aged 30, at Gallipoli on the 12th July 1915 during the ” Charge” on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah. He had been born in Walkerburn in 1886 and was the son of James and Jemima Thomson of Jubilee Road, Walkerburn and the husband of Esther Thomson of Kilncroft, Selkirk. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been employed as a pattern weaver in Selkirk when he enlisted in August 1914. He landed with his Battalion and the rest of the 52nd ( Lowland ) Division on Gallipoli in June 1915. 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 the 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. The second shows Achi Baba, the objective of the attack. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The third shows the battlefield in 1922.