Places > Book of remembrance for Tweeddale > Landward Parishes

County of Peebles Book of Remembrance.
57
was slightly wounded, but not seriously enough
to require being sent home.
Before the outbreak of war he took a promin-
ent part in the affairs of the Vale of Leithen
Football Club, and for some time played the
game. He was also a keen cricketer, being a
member of the Innerleithen Cricket Club. He
was very popular on the sports field, and being
of a quiet, amiable disposition, was well liked
by his comrades. Previous to joining the col-
our's he was employed in the machiiie room of
Tweedholm ilill. AValkerburn.
" Shall we then mourn for the dead unduly,
and forget
The resurrection in the hearts of men ?
Even the poppy on the parapet
Shall blossom as before when summer blows
again."
PRIVATE JAMES LENNIE
(iNXOiRLEtTHF.N'l
August, 1916.
He was originally an apprentice joiner
with Adam Watt at Innerleithen. Having
enlisted in the Cameron Highlanders, he
fought throughout the Boer War, and came
through all light. He continued for some
time in South Africa, and, later, departed
for Sydney, New South Wales. When the
Great War broke out James Lennie enlisted
there, and came over along witli the Austral-
ians. Never before in our history had such
an army been gathered, and never again
would such an army be seen, as strained at
the leash, behind tliat twenty-fivo mile front
on the thirtieth of June, 191G. True; we
launched greater armies and won greater
victories in the two years tihat followed, but
the very flower of a race can bloom but once
in a generation. The flower of our race
bloomed and perished during the four months
of the first battle of the Somme. We shall
not look upon their like again. It is to be
doubted if any generation will— or any race."
He fell in the month of August, 1916.
Unknown to us, but known to God,
Your spirit lives among the saints.
Your heart lies 'neath the sod —
Nobly daring, cruelly faring.
The "via dolorosa" trod —
Your soul was one that never faints :
And but for yon and such as you
Our doom were Ichabod (Thy glory hfis
departed).
PRIVATE JOHN RITCHIE
(Walkebburn)
1916. September 1.
John Ritchie enlisted in November 1914,
and was therefore one of the heroes in what
the German Emperor called, "General
Frenchs contemptible little army.'' Since
the date of the heroic retreat from Mons in
the beginning of the war, it has been con-
sidered a great honour to have been one of
the "Contemptibles,"' and a special star was
granted to all those who served in those
early days. In the month of May 1915, he
left Portobello after training, tor the Dar-
danelles, but was sent to France instead.
He fell in one of the battles in the Somme
campaign, on the 1st September, a Friday,
1916. The Germans were making an attack
on High Wood but were repulsed by the
British; in this engagement John Eitchie
fell. "Across the ribbon of the Dardanelles,
on the green plain of ^y, the most famous
of the wars of the ancient world had been
fought. The European shores had now be-
come a no less classic ground of arms. If
the banks of Scamander had seen men strive
desperately with fate, so had the slopes of
Achi Babi and the loud beaches of Helles.
Had the fashion endured of linking the strife
of mankind with the gods, what strange
myth would not have sprung from the rescue
of British troops in the teeth of winter gales
and uncertain seas. It would have been
rumoured, as at Troy, that Posidon had done
battle for his children."
They have no place in storied page,
No rest in marble shrine :
They are paist and gone with their bygone
age;
They died, and made no sign.
But work that shall find its wages yet.
And deeds that their world shall not forget.
Done for the Love Divine —
These were their triumphs, and these shall
be
The crowns of their immortality.
PRIVATE WILLIAM TENNENT
(Innerleithen)
King's Own Scottish Borderers.
1916. Septeheer 3.
Information was received liy Mrs Tonnent
that her son, William, had fallen. He en-
listed six months previously and very soon