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2/Lt. James Alec Rattray
British Army 5th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery
from:Plymouth
(d.23rd September 1917)
Soon after the outbreak of war on 4th of August 1914, James Rattray was serving with the 38th Battery Royal Garrison Artillery. It's 60 Pounder guns were allocated to the newly formed 38th (Welsh) Division and based at Pwllheli and Porthcawl where, due to different elements of the division being based in different parts of Wales, training as an entire entity was difficult. During this period, James was married on 26th October 1914 to Violet May Hill.
In early June 1915, 38th Battery left the 38th Division and became part of the 42nd Heavy Artillery Group and, at the same time, James was transferred to Base Details. On 6th June 1915, James was promoted to Corporal and joined the British Expeditionary Force in France, being attached, between arrival and 9th October 1915, to several Trench Howitzer schools and two newly formed trench howitzer batteries in the base areas around Rouen.
The 9th October 1915 saw James fall ill with complications leading to nephritis (inflammation of the kidney) and, after a short stay in hospital in Rouen at No.1 Stationary Hospital, he was evacuated to England on the 17th October where, after a stay in Hospital in Brighton, he was transferred to No.2 Depot Royal Garrison Artillery (Fort Rowner, Gosport). James stayed at Gosport for the next two months, most likely assisting in the training of new recruits, before moving on 17th December 1915 to a more specialist training role with B Siege Depot at Bexhill. The stay with this depot was short lived, however, as, on 27th December 1915, he was once again posted this time to 95th Siege Battery, then in training at Horsham.
After spending the previous months at Horsham, James returned to France with 95th Siege Battery, sailing from Folkestone to Boulogne, on 12th of May 1916. Armed with 9.2" Howitzers, they were attached to 35th Heavy Artillery Group on 23rd May 1916 and took up positions at Bayencourt at the beginning of June. It was from these positions that James and his battery were to take part in the initial stages of the Battle of the Somme.
In mid July 1916, 95th Battery moved from the northern part of the battlefield to the south, where they moved forward with the British advance from Maricourt to Guillemont where they were based at the end of the battle. It was during this battle that James was promoted to Sergeant in the field on 2nd of October 1916. During November, the battery moved from Guillemont to Hem and from there to Le Forest where they suffered heavy casualties. February and March 1917 saw them transferred northwards to the Vimy sector where they were to take part in the actions involving the capture of Vimy Ridge during the Battle of Arras.
On 16th of August 1917, James was granted his commission and was transferred, as a 2nd Lieutenant to the 5th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, to whom he arrived on the 17th while they were based at La Belle Alliance Farm about a mile north of Ypres. Here, the battery was in almost constant action during the 3rd Battle of Ypres which had begun just over a fortnight earlier, firing on German positions in the Poelcapelle area.
On 20th August 1917, the 5th Siege Battery moved further north to Krupp Farm, firing on positions near Poelcapelle, Spriet, and Pheasant Farm. Throughout this time, the battery was under much fire itself and suffered several casualties almost daily. On 23rd of September 1917, James himself became one of these casualties when killed in action during a heavy German counter-battery bombardment, using 8" and 5.9" howitzers, at Krupp Farm. Soon afterwards, when it was safe to do so, he was buried along with some other of the day's casualties, in the military cemetery at Bard Cottage where he still lies today. He was 27 years of age and his commission had only a week earlier been announced in the London Gazette.
