James Thomson

He attended Glasgow Academy, and then enrolled at the University in the Arts Faculty. He studied a range of subjects including Moral Philosophy, Logic, Civil Law and History, and graduated with an MA degree in 1895.

At the commencement of the South African War (Boer War) the University was offered two commissions and James was selected for one of them, which was in the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA).

By the end of that conflict he was a full Lieutenant, and, After service in China and Gibraltar, in June 1911, a Captain. On his return, he was made Adjutant of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Artillery Militia, and on the abolition of the Regiment, he was given a similar post in the Forth Coast Defence RGA.

He was posted to the Greek front, and, while with the 130th Siege Battery of the RGA, was Mentioned in Dispatches. In 1917 he was promoted Major.

Having seen service in the Far East it was not surprising that he suffered bouts of dysentery and malaria, and the Macedonian front was bedevilled by these diseases. He was admitted to hospital in October 1917, and on 26th November 1917 he died in No. 60 General Hospital, Salonika. He was 42 year old.

James is buried in Kirechkoi-Hortakoi Military Cemetery in Greece, and was survived by his wife Edith Ann Dunbar Thomson who lived at 23 Salisbury Terrace, Stoke, Plymouth. She had the words “faithful unto death I will give thee a crown of life” added to his gravestone.

As well as the University Roll of Honour, he is remembered in the Glasgow Academy Roll of Honour.