Private James Fawcus, 1st/4th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Belgium on 26th October 1917 during the Battle of Third Ypres and is buried in Poelcapelle British Cemetery, Nr., Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He had enlisted in Berwick and he fell in the fierce fighting in and around ” Aden Point ” where the Battalion took some of their objectives but were unable to hold them in the face of heavy artillery and enfilading machine gun fire. As usual casualties were heavy with 10 Officers and 96 Other Ranks being killed and 150 wounded. The photographs show the dreadful state of the battlefield where the drainage system had been shattered by the incessant shelling. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and assigned to lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby on the 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.
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