Private Robert Brydon

Private Robert Brydon, 17th ( Service ) Battalion, Royal Scots attd. to the 106th Trench Mortar Battery, Royal Field Artillery. He died in France, aged 20, on 1st May 1917 during the Battle of Arras and is buried in Marteville Communal Cemetery, Attilly, Aisne, France. He was the son of the late William and Margaret Brydon of Galashiels and he and his sister Wilhelmina were “boarders” with Walter and Mary Turnbull of Townfoot, Yarrow. Before enlisting in April 1915 he had been employed as a vanman in Galashiels. The 17th Battalion R.S . was a ” Bantam” Battalion raised for men of limited stature and was nicknamed ” Rosebery’s Bantams. The photographs show troops with both the light and heavy trench mortars in use at the time.