James Grant Allan was born in Melrose, Scotland in 1894 to the Reverend William John Allan and Isabella Catherine Brown. James, known as “Jim” to his family was the second of four children.
Moving with the family first to Stockport and then to Ayr, Jim was educated at the Ayr Aademy and at Merchiston Castle School. He was an active games player, and very much the leader among his cousins.
Jim entered Edinburgh University and studied the humanities. He kept a “Commonplace Book” in which he entered poems, which his sister Margaret continued after his death. He was very close to his sisters and wrote regularly to them, and to his parents, while he was away.
He was still a student when the First World War broke out. In 1914, with his brother Nimmo, he enlisted in the 9th Gordon Highlanders and eventually went over to France.
In the push beyond Loos on 25 September 1915, Jim received two bullets in the chest – a ‘scout’ laid him on his front, while another soldier found him dead soon after. His brother, Nimmo, wrote on 28 September. “Dear Mother, I am quite safe…I suppose you know the awful news that Jim has been killed.”
James was only 20 years old when he died. A friend and fellow officer wrote “Jim’s men thought the world of him” and continued “I have gained from his friendship…He may have left this world but only to go to a freer one…I have been strengthened by the thought of him, or his presence”.
James' burial place was thought lost and he was commemorated on the Loos Memorial, but during construction work for a new hospital on the outskirts of Lens, the remains of eight Scottish soldiers were recovered.
James was identified after artefacts found with the casualties suggested one was an officer, which narrowed the search. The families of the battalion’s 14 missing officers were traced and DNA tested, with James' family proving a positive match.
He was buried with full military honours alongside the seven other soldiers in CWGC Loos British Cemetery Extension on 25 September 2025 with members of his family in attendance.
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