Private Robert Hall

Private Robert G. Hall 1st/4th ( Border ) Battalion Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was killed in action at Gallipoli during the “Charge ”  on the Turkish trenches at Achi Baba Nullah  on 12th July 1915. He had been born in Chatton, Nothumberland and was the son of George and Edith Hall of Ledgerwood, Berwickshire. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey. Before the war he had been employed as a Farm worker by Mr Cavers of Thorniedykes Farm, Westruther where he had lived with his parents. That fateful day became known as the “Black Day of the Borders as only 70 unwounded men answered Roll Call that evening out of the over 700 Officers and Other Ranks who had begun the attack. Few Border towns and villages had not lost at least one of their sons.  The author’s Great Uncle Jim Murray from Coldstream was wounded and spent 6 weeks in hospital in Alexandria before returning to the Peninsula. The photo shows Achi Baba, the objective, marked with a cross. This “hill” dominated the battlefield and was never captured. The second shows the Borderers going into the attack and the third shows the battlefield in 1922.