Lot Essay
Private William Thomson Walker was killed in action on the 'First Day of the Somme' on 1.7.1916, while serving with the 16th (Glasgow Boys' Brigade) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry. Assigned the forbidding task of attacking the Leipzig Salient on that fateful morning, and more especially features ranging over 2300 yards from the "Wonder Work" to Mouquet Quarry, the Battalion was swept by enemy machine-gun fire within moments of going "over the top" and compelled to fall back. A roll call on the 3 July revealed a terrible tally of 554 casualties (See Westlake's British Battalions on the Somme).