Private James Dawson

Private James Dawson, 1st/6th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France on 17th April 1917 during the Battle of Arras. His step-mother lived at Hepscott Station near Morpeth and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Arras, France. The photograph shows British troops and a tank in a captured village near Arras. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and transferred to Lines of Communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby the Division had fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.