Roll of Honour
Lieutenant
Graham Nelson
Student
Graham Nelson was born on the 24th April 1894 at 10 Belgrave Terrace, Hillhead, Glasgow, the eldest son of Colonel William Nelson, a Writer, and Mary Nelson (née Benzie), who had married on the 24th August 1892 in Cathcart, Lanarkshire. He was educated at Glasgow Academy and began studying for a law degree, a BL, at the University of Glasgow in 1912.
Graham enrolled for classes in Civil Law, and Constitutional Law and History. He did not sit the exams in these subjects at the end of the academic year, however. When the war broke out he was serving an apprenticeship with the law firm Kidstone, Watson, Turnbull & Co. He planned to join his father's firm, J H Taylor, Nelson, Walker & Co in due course. William Nelson, Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), TD, was a well-known Glasgow lawyer.
The war ended many career plans, however, and on 4th August 1914 he joined the 5th Bn. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. It was no surprise that he was one of the first to volunteer. He had been an enthusiastic member of the Officer's Training Corps OTC both at school and University. He served in France from November 1914 until June 1916 when he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.
Qualified as an observer, he saw active service in France until December 1916, when he was sent back to Britain to train as a pilot. He qualified with such distinction in March 1917 that he was retained as an instructor. A few months later, on the evening of 30th August, Lieutenant Graham Nelson was tragically killed in an aeroplane accident. He was twenty-three. Lieutenant Graham Nelson is buried at Cathcart Cemetery, Glasgow (see www.findagrave.com). A younger brother, Robert, born too late to serve in the Great War, was killed in action in the Second World War on active service with the 7th Bn. Parachute Regiment.
The portrait of Lieutenant Graham Nelson is courtesy of the Australian National Maritime Museum collection of Captain Robert McKilliam (1861-1934), see the Flickr page for Lieutenant Graham Nelson.