In memory of

Private Ralph Tait

8th Highland Light Infantry

(attached 8th Royal Scots)

†May 18th 1915, age 20

Son of James Tait and Mary

Stevenson, Dolphinton

Ralph Tait was the second son of James Tait, shepherd at Kailzie Mains.  Private Tait himself was engaged as a shepherd with Mr David Dickson, Corstane, Broughton, and on the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Scots. His father, before coming to Kailzie Mains, was employed as a shepherd for many years at Howburn. Ralph Tait fell at Festubert on Sunday, the 16th of May, 1915, aged thirty.  The great battle had begun on the previous day, when the British made a successful attack.  And on the 16th their advance continued.  The battle went on from day to day, and concluded on the 25th of May, all the British gains being consolidated.

The Memorial in Le Touret Military Cemetery, Richebourg-l'Avoue, is one of those erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to record the names of the officers and men who fell in the Great War and whose graves are not known.