Private James McLeman

Private James McLeman, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed by shellfire in Belgium on 27th March 1916, aged 21. He had been born in Berwick and was the son of William and Margaret McLeman of 109 Douglas Terrace, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He is buried in Railway Dugouts Burial Ground ( Transport Farm), Flanders, Belgium. At that time the Battalion were holding frontline trenches in the St Eloi sector of the Ypres Salient and were subjected to a heavy bombardment which killed 1 Officer and 7 Other Ranks and wounded 2 Officers and 16 Other Ranks. The photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the fallen of the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as the Pioneer Battalion.  It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where the Division had fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.

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