Private, James Cruickshank

Private James Alexander Cruickshank, 1st Battalion Cameron Highlanders. He died from wounds in Belgium at the end of the Battle of First Ypres on 28th November 1914, aged 31 and is buried in Kortrijk( St Jan) Communal Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium. He was the son of James and Annie Cruikshank and had been born in Edinburgh.  He had been a Regular soldier but had left the Army and had spent several years working as a porter at Gordon Station. As a Reservist he was recalled to the Colours on the outbreak of War. His headstone is inscribed” Their Glory Shall Not Be Blotted Out”. He had been wounded and taken prisoner in October and died in a German Military hospital at Courtrai. (The Camerons were part of the 1st Guards Brigade along with the 1st Coldstream Guards, 1st Scots Guards, 1st Black Watch and the London Scottish and had taken part the very heavy fighting near Gheluvelt to hold up the German offensives at Ypres). The photos show Scottish troops in Belgium in late 1914.