Remembering today, 10110 L/Cpl William Charles Axon of the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers who was killed in action 100 years ago on the 27th October 1914.
William Axon was born at Umballa, India on the 6th April 1889 and baptised in Dagshai on the 5th May that year. His father, John Samuel Axon, was a colour sergeant with the 21st Regiment of Foot (later Royal Scots Fusiliers) and was stationed in India at the time of his son's birth.
William's regimental number dates to around the 5th October 1909 (when he would have been twenty years old), and his medal index card indicates that he arrived overseas on the 14th August 1914. A brief entry in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour notes that he was killed in action "near Ypres" whilst the war diary notes that between the 27th and 31st October, three men were killed and four wounded, "chiefly from snipers". The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website notes that William was serving with B Company and that he was the son of John and Eliza Axon of 74 Slateford Road, Edinburgh. He is buried in the Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard at Laventie, his body having been re-buried there after it was removed from another location: map reference 36 - M23 - D3.3. His parents paid for the inscription, THY WILL BE DONE to be added to his headstone.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
I've borrowed the image on this post from the Panoramio website. The photo was taken by Werner Van Caneghem.
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