Private James Fawcus

Private James Fawcus, 1st/4th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, He died in Belgium on 26th October, 1917  from wounds suffered during the Third Battle of Ypres and is buried in Poelcapelle British Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium. He had enlisted in Berwick. He fell in the fighting at ” Aden Point” where the objectives were captured but could not be held in the face on heavy shelling and enfilading machine gun fire. Casualties were 10 Officers and 96 Other Ranks killed with a further 150 wounded. The photographs give an idea of the dreadful ground conditions of the battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems. The colour photograph shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and assigned to lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby on 26th April 1915 at St. Julien the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.