James Rome

After leaving school, James may have worked in, or served an apprenticeship with, his family’s joinery and building business, James Rome & Son, which had been established by his grandfather. Both James’s father and grandfather were joiners, but he trained as an architect, and enrolled as an evening student of the Glasgow School of Architecture from session 1903-1904 to session 1908-1909. Founded in 1904, the Glasgow School of Architecture was jointly financed and administered by the Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (later known as the Royal Technical College, now the University of Strathclyde). As it did not have its own staff or premises, students of the School attended classes at both the School of Art and the Technical College.

The Technical College student registers record James’s occupation as ‘Architect’, and show that during his six years there, he took courses in Quantity Surveying, Building Construction (for which he earned a first-class certificate of merit), and various courses in Architecture. He also attended a class in Architectural Design at Glasgow School of Art. James appears to have been working towards the Certificate of the School of Architecture, though the records do not confirm that he achieved this qualification. His younger brother, John, also attended the Technical College from 1908-1909 to 1912-1913, taking classes in Building Construction, Quantity Surveying, Builder’s Quantities, and Surveying. The student registers record John’s occupation as ‘Measurer’, and latterly as ‘Civil Servant’.

Although James did not attend the University of Glasgow as a student, he joined its Officers' Training Corps, where was a cadet from 1915-1916. On the 7th July 1916, James was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant to the 5th Bn. Highland Light Infantry. He fought in France for four months and was killed in action on the 18th November 1916, shortly after his 29th birthday. 2nd Lieutenant James Rome is buried at Serre Road Cemetery No 2, Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, Picardie, France. He is remembered both on the University of Glasgow Roll of Honour, and on the Roll of Honour of the Royal Technical College of Glasgow.