206285 Pte. John Wallace Keith British Army 14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Btn. Black Watch from:Ladybank, Fife, Scotland (d.2nd Sept 1918) My Grandmother's youngest brother, John, worked in the ticket office of Kirkcaldy Railway Station and either enlisted or was called up in 1916 aged 20. He was first sent to Egypt but after a bout of dysentry was sent back home to recuperate. John returned to France but was killed on the Somme at the village of Moislains, 2nd September 1918, aged 22. Three officers and 37 other ranks died in the same action.
John Keith is commemorated on the War Memorials in his home town of Ladybank and in nearby Giffardtown also in Fife, also on the National Railworkers Memorial in Waverley Station, Edinburgh. The Keith family never knew where John was buried, the Books of Remembrance inside Edinburgh Castle show 'no known grave'. However, many years after his parents and siblings had died, the Commonwealth War Graves website put full details of WW1 casualties online and the final resting place of John Wallace Keith was found to be the Communal Cemetery in Peronne. Surviving members of his family have visited the site and say it is a quite beautiful place. RIP John
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