Peasants to Puddles
My Family History - By Nicky Rowberry

James Low Fraser - Private S/15492

This page is dedicated to the memory of James Low Fraser who died on 16th May 1917 in France.

James Low Fraser was born in 1896 in Dollar, Scotland and he died on 16th May 1917 in France, one of the many millions of men who lost their lives in World War 1. It seemed sad for him to have died and all but these bare facts remembered, so I've tried to find out at least a little about his life until his untimely death aged just 21.

James Low Fraser was born on 2nd April 1896 in Bridge Street, Dollar in Scotland. He was the youngest of 3 children born to Robert McFarlane Fraser and his wife Sarah Low. At the time of James' birth, his father was a master watch maker in Dollar. The family were still in Bridge Street, Dollar in 1901. Robert was described as a watch maker (repairer) and the family were doing well enough to have a live-in servant girl.

In 1911, the family were still in Bridge Street. James was still at school, but his older sisters were already working, aged 16 and 17. Information from Ochils Landscape Partnership website show that James went to Dollar Academy and left school in 1913 aged 16 or 17. He went on to work for Mr D.L. Frew, a civil and mining engineer in Glasgow.

He could only have had a year or so after school working before WW1 began in 1914. He did not join up immediately, but had enlisted by the end of 1915. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website revealed that he was a Private in the 1/8th Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, his service number was S/15492 and that he was commemorated at Arras Memorial in France. I can't reproduce the CWGC photo of the cemetery, but to see his page please click here

You can now look at the Medal Roll cards from the first world war online. These show a soldier's name, rank and what medals they were entitled to. Due to copyright issues, I don't think I can reproduce the image of the medal card, so instead I've transcribed it:

As is so often the case with these medal cards, not all of the information has been filled in, but it does indicate that he would have been entitled to two medals. The British Medal was awarded to servicemen who served in a theatre of war between 5th August 1914 and 11th November 1918. The Victory Medal (Allied Victory Medal) was awarded for service in any operational theatre over the same time frame.

Fortunately James' service records survive (many were destroyed by bombing and a fire in WW2) and show he joined up in Glasgow on 2nd December 1915. This was just before conscription came into force, suggesting he voluntarily joined up. When he signed up his occupation was given as mining engineer. The service records also say that he had blue eyes and dark brown hair and that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall. His father was initially given as his next of kin, although sadly his father died in 1916 and his mother in 1917 and so his next of kin subsequently became his sister Agnes Fraser. He was posted to France in July 1916. In December 1916 he was admitted to military hospital in Etaples with superficial burns to his face, hand and leg after another soldier spilt something on him near a fire. The army reported that his wounds were trivial and that he was in no way to blame for them.

Unfortunately his service records don't go into any detail about how he died, but the Ochils Landscape Partnership website says that he was killed while going for ammunition. However, you can now look at the War Diaries for a given regiment, so I've looked at the War Diaries for the 8th Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. War Diaries were kept as a daily record of operations, intelligence reports and anything else that was going on for a given battalion. I've transcribed the relevant war diary for the days around James' death below, to give a feel for what he must have been doing in his final days.

James Fraser was in C. Company. According to the war diaries above, he would have been in the Fampoux area of France on 16th May 1917 when he died. The officer writing the War Diary notes: 2 officers killed, 3 wounded and 4 missing, and 25 other ranks killed, 97 wounded and 60 missing. James was one of the 25 other ranks killed that day. When I first started reading War Diaries I thought it was very sad that other ranks were so seldom mentioned by name. But this seems to have been standard procedure and the officers recording the events probably had neither the time nor the information to record any more detail. His name was listed in the Appendix to the diary, confirming his death and that he was in C Company.

I've not managed to find any newspaper reports yet about James' death. It's likely that his death was reported in the local newspaper, the Alloa Advertiser, but unfortunately this is not yet available online.

James is commemorated at the Arras Memorial in France. Arras is a memorial to 35000 soldiers with no known grave. So this must mean that James' body was never found. He is also commemorated back home on a brass plaque for the soldiers lost in WW1 in Dollar church. If anyone can let me have photos of either memorial to add here, I would love to hear from them.

The final piece of documentation I could find for James Fraser was his entry in the Army Register of Soldiers' Effects. It lists the amount of money in his account at the time of his death and the amount, including the War Gratuity, that was eventually paid to his next of kin - in this case to his sisters Agnes & Robina (incorrectly listed as Ruby in the document). For James the total amount came to just £12 0s 5d - not much to show for the ultimate sacrifice.

So that's all I've managed to find about the life of James Low Fraser. If anyone can add to it, I would love to hear from them. The photo at the top of this page is the only one I've found so far of James. It was published in the Dollar Magazine in 1917. If anyone has any more photos of James, please feel free to E-mail me.

In researching James' final days, several sites have been invaluable, so I've included links to some of them here.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is a great site to start with to give you the basic details you would need to then start digging deeper:

The National Archives at Kew now hold a huge number of records, many of which are available online, but it is well worth a visit down there if you can make it:

The official Government source of genealogical data for Scotland:

The British Newspaper Archive holds digitised images of newspapers from all over Britain. New pages are added weekly and it can be a great way of adding to your research:

If any of the above is of further interest, please feel free to contact me at: n.rowberry@btinternet.com

Nicky Rowberry 2024

Thank you for visiting my site. You are visitor number:

Peasants to Puddles - My Family History. By Nicky Rowberry