John Craig McFadyen

John attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1903-1905, where he studied drawing and painting. He then came to the University of Glasgow in 1905 to study for an Arts degree, taking and passing courses in Mathematics, English, Moral Philosophy, Latin, Logic, Education and French. He was an accomplished linguist, being recognised as second in his French class, in which he also achieved a prize certificate.

John graduated MA on the 8th June 1909 and immediately enrolled for a one-year postgraduate teacher training course at the Glasgow Provincial Training College, forerunner of Jordanhill College of Education, now the University of Strathclyde. He qualified for the Teacher’s General Certificate in the summer of 1910. John then returned to the Glasgow School of Art, where he took further studies in drawing and painting from 1910-1914. He subsequently acted as interim Head Master at Hightae School, Dumfries and Galloway

John joined the Artists Rifles Officers' Training Corps in February 1916 and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of the Royal Field Artillery on the 12th January 1917. John served as part of the expeditionary force in France and Flanders and was killed in action at Messines on the 6th June 1917. A brother officer wrote: “Mr and Mrs McFadyen had a son to be proud of and I state the sentiments of the whole division.”

2nd Lieutenant John Craig McFadyen is buried in Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery, near Ieper, Belgium. His headstone reads, at the request of his mother Agnes, “First, God Each Spirit In Its Place Doth Lay But In The End Discards The Useless Clay.” He is remembered on the Rolls of Honour of the Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers.