Lance Corporal James Brown

Lance Corporal James Ayton Brown, 7th ( Service ) Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in action in Flanders on 24th November 1915, aged 21. He was the son of John and Rebecca Brown of Crookham, Cornhill-On-Tweed and is buried in Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, Ypres, Belgium. He had pestered his parents until they finally consented to his enlisting. He joined the Seaforths on 28th July 1915 and trained at Cromarty. He received his stripe after only a few weeks and in only four months he was drafted to France. He had been there eight days and in the trenches only two when he was killed by a shell. Before enlisting he was employed as a roadman with his uncle at “Oakhall ” under the Glendale Rural District Council. He was also connected with the Crookham Presbeteryian Church and the congregation was about to send him a Christmas parcel of comforts when the news of his death came through. At that time the Battalion, which was part of the 9th ( Scottish) Division, was holding part of the front line between ” The Bluff” and Sanctuary Wood near Ypres. This was a notoriously unhealthy part of the Front with continuous shelling, mining and sniping. The photographs were taken near Sanctuary Wood in 1915.