Sergeant John Cockburn

Sergeant John Simpson Cockburn, 9th ( Reserve) Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He died in hospital in Edinburgh on Service, aged 43, on the 14th August 1916. He was the son of James and Margaret Cockburn of Ness Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed and the husband of Elizabeth Cockburn of 9 Glebe Terrace, Selkirk. He had been born in Berwick in 1873 and had enlisted as a Regular in the Cameronians in 1891 serving in India. He then left the Army but volunteered for Service in the Second Anglo-Boer War and served with the 2nd Battalion Cameronians. In all he served with his Regiment for 21 years. When the Great War broke out he was working as a postman in Selkirk. He offered his services to the K.O.S.B and was appointed as an Instructor at Stobs Camp near Hawick and at Kinghorn in Fife. It was here he fell ill and after being sent to Craigleith Hospital in Edinburgh he died. He is buried in Berwick Cemetery.