James Farmer Gibson Brown was born on 1st October 1921 at 5.30pm at 385 Sauchiehall Street.
I think (but am not certain) 385 is the white door; note also the greeting from the worky for the Google Street View vehicle.
James’s father was Thomas Gibson Brown and he had married Catherine Gwladys Jones in Edinburgh in 1916. On James’s birth record, his father’s job was as a life assurance inspector.
Sadly that is most of what I currently know about James. He was born after the 1921 Census. In the 1940 Valuation Roll, I can find the family at 30 Thomson Drive:
James’s service record has been requested but he was in 1st Battalion The Glasgow Highlanders in 1945 and was an officer (Lieutenant).
Following D-Day and weeks of attritional fighting in Normandy where advances were measured in hundreds of yards, the Allies broke out in August 1944 and rapidly liberated France most of Belgium and parts of the Netherlands. Momentum was lost close to the German border and late in the winter of 1944-5 operations began to advance to the River Rhine as a prelude to a crossing. This series of battles, collectively known as the Battle of the Rhineland were also attritional and costly. To a modern reader, with the benefit of hindsight, they seem frustrating and depressing deaths – the end of the war in Europe was inevitable.
James had been with the 1st Glasgow Highlanders since November 1944, commanding a platoon (30-40 men) in A Company. I have profiled Neil Livingstone (link) who died on 21st January; he was in D Company but James and A Company were leading the same attack.
The battalion had moved since then, about 100 kilometres further north, as a new American Army took over the old sector. The new plan was to launch a pincer attack with 1st GH as part of the northern arm:
The old Sittard sector from January can be seen towards the bottom left corner; the new battlefield for the Glasgow Highlanders was to be in the top left corner in the attack on the Reichswald area.
The battalion was in Gennep at the top of this Google Earth view and the objective was Afferden in the bottom-right corner. On 17th February the attack started at 05.00 with B and D Companies leading and the north end of the village as their objective. A and D Companies would then pass through to take the centre of the village; James’s A Company was on the right (so the west because the attack was roughly north-to-south).
Afferden was captured by 8am. But the war diary says “About 10;00 hrs spandau opened up from dyke on river side and killed Lt J.F.G. Brown and an N.C.O. Day spent consolidating.” (I am indebted to Paul at the Milsbeek War Cemetery Facebook page for providing this information, link to page). Here is a sketch map, also provided by Paul:
Given that A Company’s objective was the south end of the village, it seems a reasonable assumption this is where he was killed.
He is buried at Milsbeek War Cemetery:
The words on his headstone are “Always Remembered”. He is buried with two other men of his battalion who died that day, Lance-Corporal RJ Miller (of C Company) and Private J Ferguson (also of A Company).
In 2025, the local Dutch people do an incredible job of keeping the memory of the sacrifice made by these men alive, collecting as many photos of them as possible, organising events and setting candles by their graves (see their Facebook page, link).