James Percival McNicol was born on 28th September 1897 at Huntly on Thorn Road in Bearsden.
He was known as Percy but I have called him James in this post. The villa called Huntly is now number 8 Thorn Road.
His parents were James McNicol and Annie Isabella Dick (known as Annabella). He had two younger sisters Lilias Winifred, born 1900, and Anna Marjorie, born 1904. His father’s job was a house factor and insurance agent.
I am indebted to Chris Barker’s post about James for a lot of the detail that follows (link), especially because the usually helpful Milngavie and Bearsden Herald has no mention of James at all.
In 1915, his sister Lilias died of meningitis as a complication of otitis media (common ear problem) at Woodside Nursing Home, 3 Woodside Terrace. She was 14 and James, still only 17, registered her death.
He was educated at Glasgow Academy and then Edinburgh University where, as a member of the Officer Training Corps, he obtained qualifications in rifle shooting. There is a reference to him being a “farmer’s pupil”, so I wonder if he was studying agriculture.
Photo posted by sammycat on Ancestry.co.uk. James is in the front row, second from the right.
Chris Barker reports that James enlisted in Edinburgh on 24th April 1916. “He was given rank and number Private S/16659 in the 15th (Reserve) Battalion, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and posted to Army Reserve.
On 8 July 1916, James completed an application for attendance at an Officer Cadet Unit with a view to obtaining a commission as a temporary officer of the regular army. J. H. Dickin [actually Dickie], a parish minister who lived at New Kilpatrick House in Bearsden, supported his application. This man said he had known James for nine years. Edwin Temple, headmaster of Glasgow Academy, verified that James had the appropriate standard of education. …
His application accepted by the authorities, James was recalled on 7 August 1916, and posted to No. 4 Officer Cadet Battalion at Oxford. James passed the training course successfully, and was appointed to a commission in the Special Reserve of Officers and posted to the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders on 22 November 1916.”
This photo of James would have dated from about this time.
He would have served through 1917. We know he was with the 10th Battalion of the A&SH when he died. This battalion was part of 9th (Scottish) Division, and within that the 26th Brigade, at this time and in 1917 it was heavily involved in both the Battles of Arras and Passchendaele. but we do not know when James joined it.
In 1918 on 20th June a telegram was sent to James’s father: “Regret inform you that 2/Lieut. J. P. McNicol Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders reported twentieth June admitted third Casualty Clearing Station France, suffering from gunshot wounds throat thigh and arm right dangerously ill”. The battalion records refer to German trench mortar bombs exploding but nothing to suggest what would have caused gunshot wounds.
Chris Barker says: “On 20 June 1918, Lieutenant Colonel Ray, commanding officer of No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station, then located at Bagneux near Doullens, sent to the War Office a report of the deaths of two officers. It listed Second Lieutenant J. P. McNicol, 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, having died as a result of wounds to the throat, buttocks and arms.”
The Sister-in-Charge of the hospital, Winifred Gedaye, wrote to James’s mother
James was buried at Bagneux British Cemetery at Gezaincourt. this was the burial ground for the casualty station.
In 1934, James’s mother gifted a stained glass window to New Kilpatrick Parish Church dedicated to her husband (James senior), her son (James Percival) and to his sister Lilias. This is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 14th December that year:
