1882 James Lennox Dawson VC.British Army 187th Field Coy. Royal Engineers from:Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire James Dawson enlisted into the 5th Cameronians in November 1914 and transferred to the Royal Engineers in March 1915. He was awarded the VC as a Corporal in the 187th Company, Corps of Royal Engineers, he was 23 years old.
His citation reads:
"On 13 October 1915 at Hohenzollern Redoubt, France, during a gas attack, when the trenches were full of men, Corporal Dawson exposed himself fearlessly to the enemy's fire in order to give directions to his sappers and to clear the infantry out of sections of the trench which were full of gas. Finding three leaking cylinders, he rolled them well away from the trench, again under heavy fire, and then fired rifle bullets into them to let the gas escape. His gallantry undoubtedly saved many men from being gassed."
He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in December 1916 and demobilised as a Major in 1919. After graduating from Glasgow University he was commissioned in the Army Education Corps in 1920, but transferred to the Indian Army Ordnance Corps in 1931 and later achieved the rank of colonel.
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