Roll of Honour
2nd Lieutenant
James Wilson Buchan
OTC
James Wilson Buchan was born on the 8th February 1898 at 13 MacLean Street, Partick, Lanarkshire. He was named after his father James who was an Iron Ship Plater (Journeyman). His mother was Elizabeth Buchan (nee Wilson) and they had married on the 27th December 1894, also in Partick. By the time the news of their son’s death reached them in the spring of 1917 they were living in Jordanhill, at 5 Kent Avenue (now Orleans Avenue). He was a member of the University's Officers' Training Corps in 1916, the year when he became old enough to join up, and may have intended to come to the University after the war.
James promptly sought and received a commission to serve as 2nd Lieutenant with the 3rd Bn. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and was attached to the 5th Bn. Border Regiment when they advanced at Arras. The British action was intended as a distraction to relieve pressure on Nivelle’s French army as it broke the German lines at the river Aisne and brought the war to a quick conclusion. It didn’t happen and Arras became a very costly operation for the British, especially the Scots, who suffered huge losses. The Battle of Arras began well enough on the 9th April, with signs that lessons had been learned on the Somme but two weeks later, when the attack resumed at the Second Battle of the Scarpe on 23rd April, the momentum was lost. The troops were cold and exhausted. The Germans had revitalised their defences.
Many fell, among them 2nd Lieutenant James Wilson Buchan who was killed in action on the 23rd April 1917, aged 19, and is buried at London Cemetery, Neuville-Vitasse, in a shallow valley south-east of Arras, France. Inscribed on his grave is a verse from the Second book of Timothy, Chapter 1, verse 12 - ‘I know whom I have believed’.
Comments and Citations
Memorial Place: Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Find War Dead