John Duvoisin

James Hurll Duvoisin was born on 5th February 1891 at 6 Broomhill Avenue - in modern terms just on the Partick side of the junction of Crow Road and the Clydeside Expressway:

His unusual surname was because his father, Emile Francois Duvoisin was Swiss by birth, but living in Glasgow for over twenty years (more than half his life) and was to become a naturalised citizen later in 1891.  Emile was an iron broker at the time of John's birth i.e. a trader (speculator?) in finished iron, buying and selling it as market prices dictated.  (See for example, the opening paragraph of this article, actually a description of a court case where a broker sued a client.)

I don't know why Emile chose to settle in Glasgow - it's possible some family members were here.  In 1886 he married Sarah Hurll of Woodneuk, Cadder, youngest daughter of the family who owned the brickworks at Glenboig:

It's not clear whether marriage led to a business partnership between Emile and the Hurlls or the other way round.  This is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 11 September 1908:

This webpage gives some of the facts, but we do know that in later life Emile was Chairman of the company:

Note the Garscube and Knightswood works seem to have been in Netherton, just to the west of Switchback Road where it crosses the Forth and Clyde Canal.

All of which establishes John came from a wealthy family (his parents had two servants when he was born) but also that they moved around a lot, presumably reflecting Emile's increasing wealth and status.  John had four siblings and was educated at Glasgow High School.  There is no record of him going to university but when he joined the army in 1914 his occupation was as works manager, presumably at one of the family's factories.

War was declared by the UK on 4th August 1914 and he attested (volunteered) on 2nd September and joined the 9th Battalion, Highland Infantry.  His papers do not contain much personal detail, except that he was 5 feet and 7 inches tall and that he had been in the battalion before (it was a Territorial Army unit) and had been discharged in 1912 as medically unfit.

The 9th HLI Headquarters, Greendyke Street, facing onto Glasgow Green

Just over two months later the battalion was on its way to France with John serving as a private.  The following portrait is of a corporal but gives an idea of how John would have been equipped.

John served as a private through 1915 including some bloody battles in May 1915 and at this time his elder brother, Rodolphe, who was also serving in the battalion was wounded:

Thanks again to Margaret Martin for the photo.  

On 18 June he was commissioned (promoted to Second Lieutenant, the most junior officer's rank).  The battalion continued to serve in the front line through the late summer and autumn.  During the night of 12th October, John was ordered to take 100 men into no-man's land at night to dig a trench.  It was pointed out the men would be easy targets as they would be silhouetted and as a compromise, John and another officer went to reconnoitre the ground.  They were quickly spotted and shot at, John being hit twice.

He made it safely back and was evacuated through a casualty station and four days later he was at Le Havre being out on the hospital ship SS St David, arriving the next day in Southampton.

The St David, originally built by John Brown's at Clydebank as a GWR ferry to carry passengers from Fishguard in south-west Wales to Rosslare in Ireland.

Ten days after he was shot, a medical board reported he had gunshot wounds to both arms.  The bullet in his left arm had entered over the deltoid muscle (shoulder area) and exited with both entrance and exit wounds nearly healed.  the one on his right arm was a glancing wound at the lower end of his humerus and was also healing.  John had been incredibly lucky; two bullets travelling at a high velocity had caused him wounds that the medical board judged severe but not permanent and his main complaint was stiffness.  if the bullets had been slightly to the left or right he would have been killed but his main symptom now was stiffness in the wounds.

However, he also reported he had fainted at the start of October and been sent to hospital for three days - no further details are available but this must have been a hospital close to the front line.  He reported having had headaches since then and the medical board noted he had been diagnosed with rheumatismus in the past, now known as rheumatic fever.  The headaches could indicate John now suffered from rheumatic heart disease which may have been a major threat to his health in its own right.  (Thanks to Dr Ken Paterson for helping decipher the handwriting and medical science - the interpretation is mine alone.)

On 13th January 1916 another medical board passed him fit for service (no mention now of rheumatismus - it seems the definition of 'fit for service' was moving over time) and John returned to 9th HLI.  They were training and preparing for the summer offensive, which we now know as The Somme.  The battalion was spared the attacks on the first day when British troops were killed and wounded by the thousands, but that was just the start.  there had been some breakthroughs and 9th HLI was to be the right flank of an attack to try to keep momentum at Martinpuich (just off the top of the photo below.

This photo, taken from an excellent account of the neighbouring battalion, gives an idea of the situation.  The British were advancing from the bottom of the photo towards the German line shown in red in the top half of the photo, which curves to take advantage of the lie of the land.  This was called The Switch Trench.  On 14th July 1916 he British had pushed the Germans back and High Wood (shown on the right) was reported as clear of German troops and the fresh battalions deployed to the left of High Wood.

Except that in the confusion, the British had not occupied High Wood and the Germans had taken their chance to occupy it, so as 9th HLI moved forward they were under fire from in front and from their flank.  They had to change direction towards High Wood.  John's platoon (about 30 men) had been left in support but was now called up; as it advanced he was killed.  The battalion was said to have had 192 men killed that day (CWGC names just over 170.)

His parents, Emile and Sarah, would have received the news at their home in Bearsden.  They lived at Cairnbank, a name not in use today, but it can be traced through valuation rolls and it is the the building on the north side of Roman Road, next to St Andrews Roman Catholic Church, shown here in 1955:

New Kilpatrick Church is visible in the top left and the post office on Roman Road is bottom left.  The gardens in front of the house are now the Douglas Street car park.

This is my best effort to reproduce the shot on Google Earth:

John's elder brother, Rodolphe, survived his wound and the war, dying in 1952.

We do not know if John's body was buried by his men but if it was, the location was lost subsequently and he is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial, one of 

the 72,000 with no known grave.