Sergeant James Howe

Sergeant James Howe, 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action, aged 44, on the 4th October 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres. He had been born in Carlisle in 1873 and was the husband of Dorothea Howe of Mill Street, Selkirk. He had been living in Halliday’s Park, Selkirk and as a Reservist he re-joined his Battalion in December 1914. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Flanders, Belgium.  He fell during the attack on Polderhoek Chateau where the ground conditions were very poor.  Colonel Machin from Coldstream won his M.C. that day but the Battalion suffered very heavily with 11 Officers and 438 Other Ranks becoming casualties. The photos give some idea of the atrocious ground conditions where the incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems.