Cairn to Haining son Ronald
Memorial plaque in The Haining, Selkirk to Ronald Pringle-Pattison, 2nd lieut. Gordon Highlanders who fell at The Somme 1916.
ANOTHER piece of the jigsaw has been provided by a Selkirk reader, helping piece together the Haining’s history.
John Stephen of the town’s Montrose Place, told us about a small cairn – in memory of a young man who lost his life during the First World War – found behind one of the estate’s former cottages.
Mr Stephen said: “I took milk into relatives of the (Haining estate owners) Pringle-Pattisons when they stayed at Burn Cottage (at Hartwoodburn). A cairn of stones was to be seen, no more than two-and-a-half feet high, built under the trees at the back of the house.”
The plaque said: “To the dear memory of Ronald, 2nd Lieut Gordon Highlanders, who fell on the Somme 6th Sept 1916 aged 19 years. Interred in Delville Wood cemetery.”
But it was years later, some time after Burn Cottage had been sold, that Mr Stephen found out who Ronald was.
“I happened to be up at the Haining House area. There I saw the Soldier’s Plaque embodied into a substantial square structure built on the top of the banking some yards to the left of the house.”
And on it he read that Ronald was John Ronald Seth Pringle-Pattison, the son of philosopher Professor Andrew Seth – who later added Pringle-Pattison to his name – who was bequeathed The Haining by Anne Pringle-Pattison.
Mr Stephen reported that Ronald’s name is also found on the town’s war memorial in the 1914-18 section.
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Weather for Galashiels
Saturday 25 May 2013
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