Fife World War I hero’s story shared by family

It is an extraordinary story of breathtaking gallantry, treasured by a family for generations and now being shared with a wider audience.

The daring exploits of World War I hero John Lumsden are being appreciated as never before thanks to a social media alert that was spotted by the Fife soldier’s grandson.

A post on the Cupar Library Facebook page by OnFife local studies supervisor Andrea McMillan caught the eye of the Company Sergeant Major’s grandson, also named John Lumsden.

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Copies of precious family documents, sent to Andrea by John junior, enable a fuller picture of the fallen hero’s life to emerge. The letters and photographs also shed light on the impact that the death had on soldier’s family.

The insights they provide help to transform a name inscribed in bronze on a granite plinth into a living, breathing person once more – a man who was sorely missed by his loved ones.

“I had two heroes of the First World War,” says John. “My grandfather’s story is well documented and he is deserving of the status of a very local war hero who paid the ultimate price.

“My grandmother’s undocumented story is one of a woman who bore her grief without bitterness and raised her children with fortitude, grace and dignity.”

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John Lumsden was one of several Cupar men to join the 7th Battalion Black Watch at the outbreak of war in 1914. He was a linen factory worker who became a local hero, awarded the Military Medal for an act of gallantry on June 16, 1915 – a year before his death.

His Battalion took part in the attack on the Festubert-Givenchy front, and were tasked with holding the communications lines leading to the trenches, and later the trenches themselves.

Losses were heavy. Lieutenant Alexander Westwood was killed and Captain James Donaldson, from Falkland, was wounded in the head by a sniper, losing an eye.

John Lumsden carried his captain back, under heavy shell fire, from the firing lines to the reserve lines. Just after they crossed a water-course, a shell burst behind them, wrecking the bridge they had crossed and cutting off a party of wounded men on the other side.

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Sergeant Lumsden handed Captain Donaldson over to another man and hastily collected planks and other materials. Under continuous fire, he and a few fellow men from his platoon restored the bridge, allowing the men on the other side to get across.

This was no isolated display of bravery. Earlier that day, he had apparently thrown a bomb out of a trench.

Captain Donaldson, convinced that he owed his life to his sergeant’s gallant conduct, mentioned John Lumsden in dispatches in January 1916.

Within six months, aged 26, John was dead, killed on 30 July along with Lieutenant George Pagan, during the attack on High Wood. A posthumous Military Medal was awarded in 1917. It was sent to John’s widow, Jemima, at 13 Railway Place, where she lived with their three young children – the youngest of whom had been born four months after his father’s death.

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Bravery appears to have run in the family. John’s brother, Tom, who survived the carnage of France – was also awarded the Military Medal. He was later to be a Guard of Honour when Earl Haig unveiled the Cupar War Memorial in 1922.

The memorial is a large, distinguished monument that reflects Cupar’s status as county town at the time. The names of the 189 military personnel who died in the Great War are listed.

Among them are Beatrice Campbell, the only women on the memorial – killed in France by an aerial torpedo – and, almost improbably, one soldier who served with the 2nd Imperial Camel Corps.

The Facebook post is typical of the work that Andrea McMillan and the OnFife Local Studies team do keep the stories of Fife’s war heroes alive.

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The stories that Sergeant Lumsden’s grandson related to Andrea can still pierce the heart, decades on, said John junior, who lives in Glasgow: “The final words of this history are Jemima’s and they have stayed with me from the day I first heard them to this. She was at the end of her life in hospital and drifting in and out of consciousness and I was there with my father, Johnny, when she opened her eyes. My father, who was the double of my grandfather, was very close to her side and she looked at him and said ‘John you’ve come back’.”

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