Private Walter Rutherford

Private Walter Dickson Rutherford, 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action, aged 20, at Gallipoli on the 12th July 1915 during the ” Charge ” on the Turkish trenches at Ach1 Baba Nullah. He had been born in Selkirk in 1895 and was the son of David and Jessie Rutherford of 43 Back Row, Selkirk. He had been employed as a yarn storeman at the Dunsdale Mills in Selkirk when he enlisted in the Territorials in October 1914. His Battalion was part of the 155th ( South Scottish ) Brigade in the 52nd ( Lowland ) Division and landed on the Gallipoli peninsula on the 15th of June 1915. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial with many of his comrades. 12th July afterwards became known as the ” Black Day of the Borders” as at evening rollcall only 70 unwounded Men answered out of the over 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons that fateful day. The first photograph shows the Borderers ” going over the top” at Gallipoli and the second shows Achi Baba, the objective of the attack. The third shows the battlefield in 1922.