James Mathieson Mowat

James Mathieson Mowat

7th Battalion. Gordon Highlanders

Died 30/7/1917

Corpl. W. Mowatt – Gordon Hrs.

This soldier is probably in fact Corpl. James Mathieson Mowat (“J. Mowat” on the Torphins memorial), no 290877 of the 7th Bn. Gordon Highlanders, born in Stonehaven on 5 September 1876. He was the son of a joiner, Archibald Mowat and his wife Margaret Mathieson who married at Rickarton in 1875.  He grew up in Aberdeen, appearing in the 1881 census at 3 South Bridge, Old Machar age 4, and ten years later as a message boy living with parents and brother and two sisters at 84 Holburn Street.  By 1901 the family had moved to 132 Holburn Street, and he was working as a monumental mason. 

James Mowat married Elizabeth Tosh (or possibly Josh) Mackay in 1904 at the Richmond Café in Correction Wynd, when he gave his occupation as journeyman stonecutter. By the time of the 1911 census he had moved with his family to Torphins, was living at Woodlands Cottage and was employed as a fire and insurance agent. By that time he also had children – Margaret (5), William James (3) and Gilbert Thomson (under three months).

The 7th Gordons were a territorial unit based in Banchory, part of the Gordon Brigade, Highland Division. They were deployed on the Western Front from May 1915 and participated in many of the major battles of the war. In the spring of 1917, they were involved in the Arras Offensive and, as at the date of this soldier’s death, were about to participate in the opening action of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) which commenced on 31 July 1917.

Corpl. Mowat died aged 41 on 30/7/1917. He is buried or commemorated at the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. Given the date and his place of commemoration, it seems likely that he was a casualty of the activities surrounding preparations for this action.  The Aberdeen Press & Journal reported that he had been killed by a shell: “Corporal James Mowat…was an insurance agent on Deeside for the British Legal Insurance Company…He had been two and a half years in the Army, but had only been in France for a month. He has left a widow and family of four at Woodlands Cottage, Torphins, and his mother resides at 132 Holburn Street, Aberdeen”. His name also appears on the Aberdeen City Roll of Honour. 

Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Registers of births and marriages
Censuses 1891-1911
http://www.ancestry.co.uk – family tree
Aberdeen Press & Journal 17 August 1917
Aberdeen City Roll of Honour – gives date of death as 29 July 1917