James Bowman Smith
14th (Service) Battalion, Scottish Rifles
Died 28th June 1918 age 21
Lieut. J.B. Smith – Gordon Hrs.
James Bowman Smith was born at Drumduan, Dess, on 6 August 1896. His regiment was the Scottish Rifles, not the Gordon Highlanders. His grandfather John Smith farmed at Drumduan. On census night in 1901, James aged four was there in his widowed grandfather’s household with his mother Robina. Robina married Duncan Fowler at Lumphanan in 1905. In 1911 James was living with his mother and stepfather and a half-sister Catherine aged 5 at Birley Farm, Kincardine O’Neil. He went to school in Torphins, then Aboyne Higher Grade School, and from 1911 to 1914 was a pupil at Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen. In the year war broke out, having won a bursary in the Aberdeen University Bursary Competition, he began studies in Arts and Science at the University of Aberdeen which he was never to complete. Smiths are by their nature hard to identify definitively, but a James B. Smith featured in newspaper reports of University exam results in English and Mathematics in 1914 and 1915, and was runner-up for an English Essay prize in 1915.
When James Smith volunteered in November 1915, his file suggests he had had an address at 509 King Street, Aberdeen – time-honoured territory for Aberdeen student lodgings. He was appointed in May 1916 first to the 3rd then to the 14th (Service) Bn. Scottish Rifles (service no. 19314) and sent to join the British Expeditionary Force in France on 23 July 1916. In June of 1917, by which time he had attained the rank of Lance Corporal, he returned home to join an officer cadet unit, having applied successfully to be trained for a temporary commission. In this process Smith’s former headmaster at Aboyne, Mr Cruickshank, provided a favourable character reference. The family was by then living at Clashnadarroch, Birse.
Smith was in due course appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, following further training. He returned to France in April 1918. In the final week of June 1918, the battalion was near Merville, and preparing for an attack on enemy lines. In the early morning of a “fine day” on 28 June, they were successful in attacking and capturing the enemy’s system of trenches. The attack seemed to take the enemy by surprise, and it met with very little opposition. The battalion captured one German officer and 32 other ranks, as well as a significant haul of weaponry. Two officers were killed and six others wounded. Overall, the battalion lost 40% of its strength, but most were wounded rather than killed. The day was regarded as a “brilliant success”.
However, it was also a day on which 2nd Lieut. Smith was killed in action – he being one of the two officers killed. A telegram was sent to Mrs Fowler at Clashnadarroch : “Deeply regret 2/Lt J.B. Smith D.C.L.I. Killed in Action June twenty-eighth Army Council Expresses Sympathy”.
The battalion War Diary records the bare fact, but the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, possibly drawing upon a letter to his family at that time, noted that Lieut. Smith and his company captured an important position near Merville, but while he was trying to reach an isolated outpost, a German machine gun opened fire and he was instantly killed. “He was 22 years of age [in fact 21] and was highly esteemed by all who knew him on account of his modest and unselfish nature.”
His place of burial is not known but he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. A will made in July 1916 left everything to his half-sister Cathie. There is a photograph of him in uniform in the Robert Gordon’s Roll of Honour, looking serious, intelligent, and very young.
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Register of births
Census 1901 and 1911
James Bowman Smith was born at Drumduan, Dess, on 6 August 1896. His regiment was the Scottish Rifles, not the Gordon Highlanders. His grandfather John Smith farmed at Drumduan. On census night in 1901, James aged four was there in his widowed grandfather’s household with his mother Robina. Robina married Duncan Fowler at Lumphanan in 1905. In 1911 James was living with his mother and stepfather and a half-sister Catherine aged 5 at Birley Farm, Kincardine O’Neil. He went to school in Torphins, then Aboyne Higher Grade School, and from 1911 to 1914 was a pupil at Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen. In the year war broke out, having won a bursary in the Aberdeen University Bursary Competition, he began studies in Arts and Science at the University of Aberdeen which he was never to complete. Smiths are by their nature hard to identify definitively, but a James B. Smith featured in newspaper reports of University exam results in English and Mathematics in 1914 and 1915, and was runner-up for an English Essay prize in 1915.
When James Smith volunteered in November 1915, his file suggests he had had an address at 509 King Street, Aberdeen – time-honoured territory for Aberdeen student lodgings. He was appointed in May 1916 first to the 3rd then to the 14th (Service) Bn. Scottish Rifles (service no. 19314) and sent to join the British Expeditionary Force in France on 23 July 1916. In June of 1917, by which time he had attained the rank of Lance Corporal, he returned home to join an officer cadet unit, having applied successfully to be trained for a temporary commission. In this process Smith’s former headmaster at Aboyne, Mr Cruickshank, provided a favourable character reference. The family was by then living at Clashnadarroch, Birse.
Smith was in due course appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, following further training. He returned to France in April 1918. In the final week of June 1918, the battalion was near Merville, and preparing for an attack on enemy lines. In the early morning of a “fine day” on 28 June, they were successful in attacking and capturing the enemy’s system of trenches. The attack seemed to take the enemy by surprise, and it met with very little opposition. The battalion captured one German officer and 32 other ranks, as well as a significant haul of weaponry. Two officers were killed and six others wounded. Overall, the battalion lost 40% of its strength, but most were wounded rather than killed. The day was regarded as a “brilliant success”.
However, it was also a day on which 2nd Lieut. Smith was killed in action – he being one of the two officers killed. A telegram was sent to Mrs Fowler at Clashnadarroch : “Deeply regret 2/Lt J.B. Smith D.C.L.I. Killed in Action June twenty-eighth Army Council Expresses Sympathy”.
The battalion War Diary records the bare fact, but the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, possibly drawing upon a letter to his family at that time, noted that Lieut. Smith and his company captured an important position near Merville, but while he was trying to reach an isolated outpost, a German machine gun opened fire and he was instantly killed. “He was 22 years of age [in fact 21] and was highly esteemed by all who knew him on account of his modest and unselfish nature.”
His place of burial is not known but he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. A will made in July 1916 left everything to his half-sister Cathie. There is a photograph of him in uniform in the Robert Gordon’s Roll of Honour, looking serious, intelligent, and very young.
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Register of births
Census 1901 and 1911
National Archives – Service record WO374/63544 [NB this is unhelpfully, as at January 2022, archived under the Christian name Bowman and surname Smith. Correction has been suggested to the NA database]; War Diary of the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry WO95-1578/1
Aberdeen Weekly Journal 7 March 1919
Aberdeen Evening Express 4 July 1918
University of Aberdeen Roll of Honour p..270 http://www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk – includes photo
British Newspaper Archive at http://www.findmypast.co.uk
