Private James Scott

Private James Young Scott, 43rd Battalion ( Cameron Highlanders of Canada ), Canadian Infantry. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 35, on the 27th October 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres. He had been born in Selkirk in 1882 and was the son of William and Agnes Scott of 4 Tower Terrace, Selkirk. He was the husband of Margaret Scott of 378 Ross Avenue, Winnipeg and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He had served his apprenticeship as a tailor in Selkirk before emigrating to Canada in 1905 where he was employed as a packer for a milling company in Keewatin, Ontario. He fell in the attack and capture of the the Bellevue Spur on Passchendaele Ridge which cost the Battalion 349 casualties. The photos show the atrocious state of the ground after the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile Flanders drainage systems.