More about James Foster

For reasons unknown David is not listed on the original Dundee Roll of Honour. He shares a final resting place with Pte James Green, 9259, 1st Battalion, Kings Liverpool Regiment, who killed in action 28.10.1914.

1980 Pte James Ross Foster 1^st Bn Black Watch (RH)

James has an interesting story and his service records are amongst those lost in the Blitz of WW2.  Despite this there are sufficient other avenues to be used to research his story.

James was born in Manchester in 1895 and is listed at age 6 on the Dundee Census for 1901.  Researching his forebears we find he was born to parents James Ross Foster a shipping clerk in Dundee and Annie Foster a native of Manchester.  The father James Ross Foster was a ”local”  in that he was born to parents James Foster a village schoolmaster in Kinclaven near Coupar Angus and Annie Ross a housekeeper in the same village in February 1869 and by the time of the 1901 Dundee Census,  (attached),  James’s father was a shipping clerk residing  in Park Avenue,  Dundee and our soldier James Ross is listed as the eldest child with at that time 2 younger brothers,  John a year younger at 5 years and Robert aged 2 years.  By the time of the 1911 Dundee census,  (attached),   James has enlisted in the Regular Army serving in the 1^st Bn Black Watch and this is support by his service number of 1980 being in a the Regular Army Black Watch block of service numbers released and allocated from Jan 1911.  Back in Dundee the 1911 census reveals that the family is now augmented by 3 additional siblings Amelia aged 9,  Margaret aged 8 and Alice aged 4 and the family are now residing at 15 Wellgrove Street at the opposite end of the city.

We can see from the few available records that James was indeed still serving with the 1^st Bn Black Watch at the outbreak of war as he deploys with the Bn on 13 August 1914 and serves with them on the retreat from Mons; the Battle of the Marne;   the defence and battle of the Aisne and then around the Defence of Ypres.  We can elicit from the Bn War Diary that they fought with fellow Bns of 1 Bde of 1 Div, notably Guards Bns,  (Scots and Coldstreams and QOCH around Gheluveld on the Menin Road and retreated in late October to defensive positions in and around Polygon Wood not far from where the Black Watch Corner memorial now stands and close to the actual Corner where a contingent of Black Watch,  Cameron Highlanders and other odds and ends number only around 40 men under the command of a very junior Black Watch officer successfully held off and routed the assaults of vastly superior numbers of the Kaisers Elite Prussian Guard on 11 Nov 1914,  said to be over 800 and up to 1000 strong .  The story of Black Watch corner goes on to record that the routed Prusian Guard retreated into Nonne Bosschen Wood where they came under fire from British Artillery firing over open sights.   There is little doubt these actions played a pivotal role in inhibiting German advances on Ypres City contributing to the successful defence of that city in the First battle of Ypres

James would appear to have been wounded at some point before this either in or around the actions at Gheluveld or in the initial defences at Polygon Wood.  This is evidenced by the fact that we know he died of wounds and is interred at Ypres Town Cemetery Extension on Menin Road in Ypres  and there was an Advanced Dressing Station located in school cellars near there in 1914 hence the likelihood he died there

After the war James Pension is awarded to his mother Annie residing initially at 3 Exchange Street  Dundee and it would seem from Pension Records that she later returned to Manchester in or around 1924

There is an interesting sequel to James being entered on the GWD RoH,  that being that there is another James Foster already there with no story or detail entered for him nor any record of service save that he is recorded on the roll as served with KOSB despite there being no record of a James Foster from Dundee serving in the KOSB recorded elsewhere.  Moreover the address recorded on GWD RoH for the KOSB James Foster being 46 Castle Street and the address for James Foster 1 Black Watch being 3 Exchange Street is remarkable as they are the same corner  tenement block turning from Castle Street into Exchange Street.   Why this might be so is open to considerable conjecture Might the KOSB entry be the father ??  If so why can no entry be found anywhere to substantiate it,  Might it be another paternal relative  ?? then the same question defies an answer.  Might it be purely coincidental two James Fosters in the same tenement block ?? possible but in the absence of any substantiating evidence perhaps unlikely.  My own thought having looked exhaustively at the GWD RoH is that this may well be the result of a typographical error.  I have come across a reasonable number of these where press entries are used to assist in populating rolls back in the day,   at a time when manual typesetting was the norm and mistakes certainly occurred.    We may never know the answer to the entry for Pte James Foster KOSB but we can see from the story and ephemera reproduced as attachments that 1980 Pte James Foster 1^st Bn  BW is indeed a man with strong Dundee associations who fell in the first Battle of Ypres in 1914