James Bannerman Lorimer

RankCaptain
MedalsBritish War Medal, Victory Medal
RegimentCameron Highlanders 5th Battalion, ‘C’ Company, Attached 8th Battalion Rifle Brigade
Military Service

Lorimer enlisted in 9th Royal Scots in August 1914 reaching the rank of Lance Corporal before being commissioned Lieutenant in the 8th Cameron Highlanders in December 1914. He was promoted Captain in February 1916 and joined the 5th Battalion in France on 25th August 1916.

After this date there is confusion about which regiment Lorimer served in. If the CWGC website is taken as the ‘official’ record it seems that Lorimer was attached to the 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, presumably at the time of his death. However none of his death notices or entries in subsequent rolls of honour mention the Rifle Brigade until the recent one by the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society Club. The war diary for the 5th Cameron Highlanders is fairly detailed at that period and there is no record of Lorimer being posted away from the battalion after he joined in August 1916. When the battalion’s casualties are finally recorded in the war diary (10th May) none of the officers who were killed, wounded or missing after the assault of the previous week are named as one would expect .It is therefore unfortunately impossible to verify that Lorimer was one of the officers recorded as missing from that source. However he is not amongst the detailed list of casualties suffered by the 8th Battalion Rifle Brigade in May 1917 and found in their war diary.

Born

8th May 1879, Edinburgh

Death3rd May 1917
Circumstances of Death

Missing, officially presumed killed in action January 1918.

Age37
MemorialArras Memorial, Bay 9.
CWGC Information

Son of the late John Campbell Lorimer, K.C., Sheriff of the Counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine and Banff, and of Mrs. J. M. Bannerman Lorimer, of 17, Learmonth Terrace, Edinburgh. Enlisted Aug., 1914, with 9th Bn. Royal Scots. Gazetted Dec., 1914. Writer to the Signet.

Parents

John C Lorimer (1841-1922) & Jemima M Bannerman (1852-1929)

Father's Occupation

Advocate

Siblings

Eleanor (1877-), Alexander P G (c1881-1942), Davie A (1884-), Agatha M S (1886-1987), Elizabeth C G (Mrs Henry Fitch) (1890-)

Spouse

Unmarried

Education

Edinburgh Academy 1889-1896
Edinburgh University 1896-1899

Occupation

Writer to the Signet

1881 Census

7 Clarendon Crescent, Edinburgh (staying with Bannerman aunt and uncles)

1891 Census

Gloucester Place, Edinburgh

1901 Census

9 Gloucester Place, Edinburgh

1911 Census

9 Gloucester Place, Edinburgh

Home Address

1911 – 9 Gloucester Place, Edinburgh

Glasgow NecropolisCompartment Upsilon Lair 24
Other Information

Scottish National War Memorial
Aberdeen War Memorial
Bruntsfield Golf Club War Memorial
Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh

Acknowledgements and Sources

Much of the information on which this profile is based is drawn from various internet sources which are listed below.  The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis also wish to make full acknowledgement and thanks for the permitted use of any information or images generously supplied specifically for exhibition, publication or display in connection with The Roll of Honour and accompanying profiles to Ancestry, and Find my past.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Family Search

Scotlands People

The Long, Long Trail

The Scottish War Memorials Project

Gravestone Photographic Resource (gravestonephotos.com)

5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders, War Diary May 1915 – February 1919. (TNA WO 95/1767)

8th Battalion Rifle Brigade, War Diary May 1915 – July 1918. (TNA WO 95/1895/1)

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Credits

Compiled by Morag Fyfe, Historical and Genealogical Researcher for The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis.

 
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