SECOND LIEUTENANT PHILIP BINNIE
THE CAMERONIANS SCOTTISH RIFLES
26TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 27
BURIED: HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Philip Binnie's inscription, chosen by his mother, comes from Genesis 49 verse 15:
And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
What can it mean? The context offers little help, the dying Jacob gathers his sons together to tell them of the future. Issachar, understanding the benefits of his position undertakes to shoulder the hard work necessary to maintain it. Does this mean that Philip Binnie understood the necessity for him to shoulder the burden of fighting in order to maintain the country's position, and do the words 'became a servant unto tribute', a form of slave labour, imply that he was a conscript?
Philip Binnie went missing on 26 September 1916. His body was discovered at map reference J.13.c.2.5 in July 1920. There was no cross to mark the grave but the body still had its identity disc. Binnie was born in Leith but is remembered at Strathblane, where their First World War Memorial Project the book A Village Remembers features Binnie. He is also remembered on the memorial in what is now Clincarthill Parish Church in Glasgow.