Current Information:

Age-21

53, Boston Street, Shoreditch

At 7pm on 25th December, 1914, the 1st Scots Guards of 1 Brigade of 1st Division left their billets at Cuinchy and moved into trenches just to the north of Givenchy where they remained until relieved on 28th December. James Desmond was killed here on 26th December but the battalion diary provides no information about any casualties on that day. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.