Gunner George Balloch

Gunner George Balloch, “C” Battery 46th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was killed in action in Belgium on 11th November 1917 aged 24 during the Battle of third Ypres. He had been born in Selkirk and was the son of Archibald and Mary Balloch of St Boswells and is buried in La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery, Belgium. Before enlisting in the Artillery he had been employed as an under butler in Maidstone, Kent. He had landed in France in May 1915 as a Bombardier but later reverted to Gunner.  The Field artillery used the 18 pounder gun in an anti infantry role using both high explosive and shrapnel shells. The photographs show the atrocious conditions in Flanders where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile drainage systems.