IN the lead up to this year's centenary anniversary of the end of the Great War dozens of locals have shared their stories as part of a project being run in Peeblesshire.

Private James Haldane Hamilton of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was killed just six weeks before World War I ended.

The 20-year-old, who was the second son of Mr and Mrs Alexander Hamilton of Clifton Bank, Kirkland Street, Peebles, had enlisted in March 1917.

He'd worked as a joiner with James Elliot of Burnbrae in Peebles before taking up arms to fight for his country.

James's elder brother, William, was already serving as a sapper in the Royal Engineers and had seen action in both Salonica and Palestine.

The younger Hamilton brother had fought across the bloody battlefields of Europe for more than a year before he was killed.

Correspondence sent to James' parents in Peebles from his senior officer read: "It grieves me very much to inform you that very little is known as to how Private Hamilton met his death, but I will give you a review of events which will clear the matter a little.

"From September 19 the Battalion had a very severe time, and it was not until the October 4, when they got back a bit, that things squared up.

"It is painful to tell you that only one man of the original lot of 2nd Platoon came out, and he did not know anything about Private Hamilton.

"I knew Private Hamilton very well, and liked him immensely for his stout-heartedness and devotion to duty.

"He had often acted as my orderly, and had he survived he would certainly have received some recompense for his services.

"On September 29, after nine days’ fighting, the enemy evacuated his position, and we were able to advance over the ground where so many find lads were killed.

"I have spoken to the burial officer, and he informed me that Private Hamilton was buried in a nice new cemetery.”

James's parents later learned that their youngest son had been killed by a sniper.

Like many grieving families from around Great Britain and the wider Commonwealth, the parents of James Hamilton made a pilgrimage to the battlefields of France and Belgium.

A decade after the end of the First World War, in 1928, 11,000 veterans together with many of those bereaved by the conflict took part in the Battlefield Pilgrimage organised by the British Legion.

The pilgrimage allowed Mr and Mrs Hamilton and their daughter to visit the grave of their younger son who had been laid to rest within the British military cemetery at Villers Hill, Cambrai in the Hauts-de-France region of France.

On the weekend of Sunday, November 11, 2018, Private Hamilton will be remembered along with the other 224 sons of Peebles who made the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War with Remembrance parades and ceremonies.