Private Willie Porteous

Private Willie Porteous, 5th/6th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Cameronians ( Scottish Rifles ). He died in the 10th Casualty Clearing Station in Belgium on 3rd October 1917, aged 26, from wounds received in action during the Third Battle of Ypres. He was the son of William and Isabella Porteous of Nethershiels, Stow and is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinghe, Flanders, Belgium. His Headstone is inscribed ” Until The Day Break And The Shadows Flee Away”. Before enlisting ha had been employed as a ploughman and joined the 10 the Battalion in France in October 1915. he was invalided home due to illness returning to the front in September 1917. The photographs show  typical Flanders battlescapes the incessant shelling having destroyed the fragile drainage systems. Getting wounded men back was particularly difficult.