Heroes buried exactly 110 years after dying in battle

RELATIVES of two Scottish soldiers killed in the First World War gathered in France yesterday to witness their burial with full military honours.

- By Ben Borland

Lieutenant James Grant Allan, 9th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders and Lance Corporal Gordon McPherson, 7th Battalion, Cameron Highlanders, were laid to rest alongside their comrades exactly 110 years after they were killed in action.

Lt Allan, from Melrose in Roxburghshire, left Edinburgh University to join the Gordons when war was declared in 1914. He joined at the same time as his brother Nimmo, and they both went to fight in France.

He was killed on September 25, 1915, the first day of the Battle of Loos. A friend and fellow officer wrote "Jim's men thought the world of him" and continued "I have gained from his friendship... He may have left this world but only to go to a freer one... I have been strengthened by the thought of him, or his presence".