Private James Dumma

Private James Dumma, 1st Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed by shellfire  in Belgium on 26th April 1915, aged 19, during the Second Battle of Ypres. He was the son of John Dumma, farm steward, of Oxnam Row, Oxnan, Jedburgh and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. At this time the Battalion were holding front line trenches in the Ypres Salient and suffered numerous casualties from enemy shelling, including Private Dumma. The first photograph shows Scottish troops trying on their rudimentary gas masks. The Germans had begun to use poison gas on the Western Front front on 22nd April 1915.  The second image shows shells bursting near British troops. His brother Robert also fell – see above ).