Private James Foreman

Private James Foreman, 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He died in Belgium on 21st April 1915 of wounds received during the Second Battle of Ypres aged 39. He was the son of Henry and Anne Foreman of Norham and is buried in Boulogne East Cemetery, France. He had been a National Reservist with the Coldstream Detachment and he was mortally wounded in the attack on Hill 60 where much of the combat was hand to hand. Mines blew the top off the hill but the ensuing craters were difficult to consolidate and proper trenches could not be constructed nor garrisoned. When the Battalion were eventually withdrawn it had suffered 5 Officers wounded and 5 killed. Other Rank casualties were 201. Hill 60 was the most notorious spot in the Ypres Salient in 1915 and it is estimated over 8,000 men were killed in the continual attack and counter attacks. Many of the bodies still lie there in that very small patch of Flanders. The artist’s illustrations try to depict the intense nature of the fighting there in Spring of 1915.