John Chalmers

John Robert Thorburn Chalmers was born over 50 miles from Bearsden, on the other side of Edinburgh at Dalkeith, on 13th March 1887. The house he was born in was called Woodbrae on Park Road - in 2024 number 23 Park Road is called West Woodbrae so it is a candidate for being the Chalmers home.

This is Park Road today, looking towards Kings Park at the end of the street.

John's parents, Peter and Jessie were slightly unusual for the time in that when they were married in 1880 he was 23 and she was 39, so she had John (her third child) when she was 46 (which I assume to have been quite old to be a mother in those days).

The handwriting is not easy to read but I think John's father was a Master Clothier (although the line below this defeats me: xxx and Thirleston Road?)

By the time of the 1891 Census the family was living at 34 Woodburn Terrace, Newington in Edinburgh. Accounts suggest most of John's childhood was in Peebles and by the 1901 Census the family was at a house called Venbrae on Innerleithen Road in Peebles, just by the Hydro (or the Hydropathic Hotel as it would have been known at the time).

This 1950 photo shows the Hydro with Venbrae one of the villas in the row centre left.

John attended school here and the headmaster would be one of the signatories on his application for a commission (i.e. to become an officer) in 1914.

At some point after leaving school (in 1905?) John did three years as a reserve soldier in the Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Scots.

He also started work as a commercial traveller for a woollen merchant (I have not been able to find out which firm).

By the 1911 Census the family had moved to Bearsden to live in a villa called Alburne; I am reasonably certain this was 10 Campbell Drive. John's father was now the manager of a London-based life assurance company called Sceptre Life (we do not know how he made the transition from clothier to insurance). From The United Methodist of 8th February 1923:

John was a noted local athlete and enjoyed golf as well as hockey, being a member of the Western Club in Glasgow. He also took an interest in the Foundry Boys' Mission at Round Toll. This was set up for young men employed (or not) by the day in foundries who needed some structure and spiritual guidance in their non-working time. Round Toll is not a name recognised today but once looked like this:

The road on the left is Maryhill Road and St George's Road is out of camera shot to the left. The same view today looks like this:

We can only speculate on what John would make of the change.

When war broke out in August 1914, John was travelling either in India or further east with his work and getting home cannot have been easy. Despite living in Bearsden, he went to Edinburgh when he returned to join the army. The date was 9th October 1914 and while he applied to be an officer, he was enrolled as a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery in the meantime. he was posted to Swanage with 81 Brigade and while starting as a gunner he was a bombardier by Christmas and a corporal by April 1915. In that month his commission came through. The form John had to complete to apply for a commission shows what the army at the time regarded as important:

John was asked if he was of pure European descent and whether he could ride a horse. While he was asked about previous service, he was not asked to prove any competency or to have passed any exams. Note the handwritten comment on the last page, bottom right by the commanding officer of the artillery brigade: "Not suitable for Field Artillery - have no objection to transfer of candidate to the Infantry."

John had specified only that he wanted to join an infantry battalion, so he would have been allocated as the War Office saw fit and they selected 8th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. His paperwork describes him as 5 feet 7 inches, 122 pounds, fair complexion, brown hair and blue eyes. His character is described as sober and steady, and his military conduct as good. As a second lieutenant he was paid 7/6 (7 shillings and 6 pence) a day.

On the night of 30th June 1916, the battalion was in the front line trenches, preparing for the big attack that would become known as the Battle of the Somme. They removed the barbed wire in front of their own trenches and at 6.30 the following morning, trench ladders and bridges were put in place to climb out of and over trenches in the advance. The full story of what happened is provided by the amazing work of Jon Porter which I commend to those who want to understand the overall plan and events around the Somersets.

Porter's map shows the Somersets in red, centre-left of the map. A, B, C and D are the different companies that made up the 8th Battalion. The plan was for them to attack the German trenches, denoted by the red wiggly lines. As you can see, it wasn't one trench they were trying to capture but a whole complex of main trenches, communication trenches, etc. The 4th Middlesex were doing the same thing just to the south. The village at the bottom of the map is Fricourt.

What the 2d map does not immediately make clear is that contours are represented by shades of green with darker green representing higher ground so the Somersets were being asked to attack from lighter green areas across darker green areas i.e. uphill. Jon has supplied me with a further photo to show the first phase of the Somersets' attack - their starting trenches are in dark blue, bottom right. New trenches had been dug further forward to give the attacking troops a better chance. There is a better sense here that they were attacking uphill towards the German trenches (shown in red).

Note the number 4 in the German trench line; just to the right of this is MG representing a German machine gun that would have been firing seven bullets per second at the men struggling uphill towards them. Note also the lone tree on the right hand side, middle of the photo. It appears again in this view:

I believe this to be approximate position of the German machine gun, so the Somersets would have been advancing towards us, up the slope.

The report of the 63 Infantry Brigade tells the story of what happened next:

The comment "all the remaining officers ... became casualties suggests John was killed either on the hillside shown above or close to this point.

Two of John's fellow Second Lieutenants, Frank Dean Withers first, then Hew Dalrymple. Both were killed.

The German machine guns were deadly. They could fire about 450 rounds per minute and were effective at 2km range; if a machine gun of the time were located at Schaw House in Bearsden, it could easily reach Canniesburn Toll and a lucky shot might even kill troops by the river in the Science Park. The Somersets' war diary states, "The only enemy found alive in his first line trenches were a few machine gunners, who were immediately killed."

The Commonwealth War Graces Commission records 109 deaths among the 8th Somersets that day. I have not been able to find a figure for how many men started the 1st July but would guess about 800, so with about 300 wounded this would suggest casualties of about 50%. Of the 109 who died, 39 have a known grave but 70 do not and are recorded on the Thiepval Memorial with no known gave, including John.

We have a the handwritten draft of the telegram sent to John's father on 9th July:

On 15th August Peter, John's father wrote to the War Office asking about his son's belongings:

These were sent on 31st August with an inventory:

There was a further letter on the 9th September:

Note the (hasty) handwritten addition which reads "This officer was buried. No other officers to hand." We know John is now commemorated on the memorial for those with no known grave so the location of it must have been lost before the end of the war when known graves were relocated to cemeteries.

John's father wrote again on 18th September asking about the rest of his son's possessions: