Private David Laidlaw

Private David Laidlaw, 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in action on 7th January 1916 and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq.    He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of Hugh and Isobel Laidlaw of Garfield Street, Hawick. He had been employed in Stow as a spinner when he enlisted in September 1914. Originally he enlisted in the Royal Scots Greys but was posted to the Seaforths and was wounded during the Battle of Loos in September 1915. In December 1915 the Battalion was sent to Mesapotamia as part of the force designed to relieve a British and Indian garrison besieged by Turkish forces in the town of Kut Al Amarah. During this attempted relief he fell during the Battle of Shaikh Saad which was a costly attack on  entrenched Turkish positions which were barring the way. The attackers had little time for organisation and no clear objective but in the end the Turks having suffered severely abandoned their defences and retired.