Lance Corporal Herbert Christie Brown

Lance Corporal Herbert Christie Brown 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 12th July 1915, aged 35, during the ” Charge ” on the Turkish Trenches at Ali Baba Nullah and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. He had been born in Stow in 1882 and he was the husband of Mary Brown, of Stirling Street, Galashiels. and 4294 Montrose Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, Canada. Before enlisting in August 1914 he had been employed as a tweed warehouseman in Galashiels. That date became known as the “Black Day of the Borders” as out of over 700 assaulting Officers and Other Ranks only 70 unwounded men answered Roll Call That evening. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of her sons. The Colonel and his Adjutant were among the dead. The contemporary photograph shows the final objective. Achi Baba, marked with a cross, a seemingly insignificant eminence which dominated the battlefield and was never captured . The second photo shows Borderers going over the top at Gallipoli and the third photo was the battlefield in 1922.