Private John Brunton

Private John Brunton, 2nd Battalion, The Queen’s ( Royal West Surrey Regiment ). He was killed in action in Belgium on 4th October 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres, aged 23. He had been born in Ancrum, Roxburghshire and was the son of Mr and Mrs Brunton of  Easter Softlaw, Sprouston and Bridgeheugh, Selkirk and is buried in Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood, Flanders, Belgium. His Headstone is inscribed ” Not Dead, But Gone Before “. He had originally enlisted in the Hertfordshire Regiment and was then posted to the 8th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry before being transferred to the Queens. The first photograph shows what remained of Polygon Wood after its capture and the second shows the general desolation of the Flanders battlefield. The incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems and turned the ground into a quagmire.

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