MacGillivary/Scott transcription

Gunner Robert Whigham BAILLIE

Royal Field Artillery - 42nd Brigade 41st Battery

Service Number 23095

Date of Death 1 August 1916

Age at Death 23

Family

Son of Margaret Paton, Bellsdyke Cottages & of William Baillie, Back o’ Dyke, Larbert

Robert lived with his mother at Bellsdyke Cottages, Bothkennar.  He was a miner at Redding Pit before he joined the army. 

Robert died of wounds which he suffered on July 24 during the Battle of the Somme. At the start of July his brigade was moved into the Somme area.  By July 7 all batteries belonging to the brigade were in action south of Montauban.  On July 14 their bombardment began at 3.20 a.m., five minutes before the infantry attack on the enemy line from Bazentin-le-Grand to Longueval.  They on fired the enemy lines continuously all day. From then until they were relieved on August 1, there was heavy shelling by both sides.  On July 24 the brigade diary reported that 41st Battery was “badly shelled with all calibres.”

Cemetery/Memorial

Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France

II. E. 46.

Mericourt-L’Abbe is a village about 6 miles south-west of the town of Albert.  Since this cemetery was used to bury the soldiers who died at three Casualty Clearing Stations established in the village between May and July 1916, many graves are either too close together to be marked individually, or they contain multiple burials.

Robert is commemorated on the Grangemouth War Memorial