Gilkison J D R Lt 1st Argyll And Sutherland Highlanders
LIEUTENANT J. D. R. GILKISON
1ST BATTALION PRINCESS LOUISII’s (ARGYLL AND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS)
JAMES DAVID RALSTON GILKISON was the younger son of Dugald Stewart Gilkison, East India Merchant, of Wimbledon and Dalquharran, Ayrshire, and of Margaret his wife.
He entered the School in 1898, went to Trinity College, Oxford, 1903, was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, the same year, and obtained his Commission in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in December, 1907.
He entered the and Battalion and served with it in South Africa and, on its return home, exchanged into the 1st Battalion at Malta, in order to go with it to India, where he served over a year.
He was home on leave when the War broke out, joined the 2nd Battalion at Fort George in time to go to France on August 12th, 1914, and took part in the fighting there till August 26th, when he was killed at the Battle of Le Cateau. He was shot down while leading his men towards one of the enemy’s machine guns. Age 30.
A soldier in his Company wrote of him:-
“He was a fine Officer, and was a man loved by all the men in his Company. I served under him in Africa and in India. I was under him at Harrismith, in the Mounted Infantry, and afterwards with him in India, where he was in charge of the machine-gun section. We knew him as a first-class soldier, and we all looked up to him and respected him in the Regiment. A finer Officer we could not be under.”
Source : Memorials Of Rugbeians Who Fell In The Great War Vol 1