We know from Russell MacGillivray’s research that James Adamson (b.1889) was a married man, the husband of Elizabeth Robb of Bothkennar, and that eventually he became a police officer in Alloa in the years before the outbreak of war in 1914. He was the father of two children “wee Jim & Nettie”, and the son of Mr and Mrs McDonald. Which is odd.  James’ surname was Adamson, not McDonald

James Adamson was born in Larbert on 18th May 1889, the son of James Adamson, a foundry worker, and Susan Ferguson Grindlay. James snr was 29 and Susan 18 when they married.

By 1891, James’ father had become a carter, and subsequently became a foundry stocktaker in Larbert. The family were doing well but in October 1894 James’ father died of pneumonia. James and his brother and sisters lost their father, and another child was on the way, born after her father’s death. As a consequence James’ mother is left with four children to care for with James being the oldest, aged 5.

We lose sight in the records of James after the 1891 Census returns, but we do know that James’ mother, Susan Grindley or Adamson, married William McDonald, “a native of Gargunnock” who worked as a carter around the railway at Larbert Station in 1898. This appears to be a story of widow meets a widower, find common cause in the children and create a new family. In 1901 find the reconstructed family housed together in 156 North Road Gardner’s Land Stenhousemuir.

The couple had married on 2nd December 1898, and appear to have moved into a property in Stenhousemuir. On the same census, James is aged 12 and employed as a messenger boy: it is likely that a lad with wit could be a useful in oiling the works of the Victorian transport and communications. James and his extended family lived close to each other. James’ grandfather, Alexander Adamson, died in 1891, and James’ grandmother, Christian Braidwood, died in 1898.

Census returns for Stenhousemuir over the years show the Adamson family as established folk, housed in and around Tryst Road. The Tryst was the cattle fair the final resting place for the highland cattle driven down from the north that came round every year for a hundred and more years and was something not to be missed for Falkirk folk, even to the present day. The cattle have gone (perhaps the golfers objected) but the fair still returns.

The Tryst was the cattle fair that came round every year, the final resting place for the highland cattle driven down from the northand was something not to be missed. It was the venue for the Tryst Fair, the big cattle fair that had been the venue for over a century. The venue was a large open area and had been boosted by the arrival of the railway. In James’ time it was the also the venue for the Tryst Fair. The big cattle fair that had been the venue for cattle sales for over a hundred years, attracting business and being a spectacle in itself, but latterly the Tryst had developed principally into a huge amusement fair.

William McDonald’s connections with Gargunnock may explain why James is discovered on the 1911 census as being a “farm servant” at Brackenwood Farm, Gargunnock. By this time James is away from home and finding his way in the world and he appears in Bothkennar, despite his usual residence being Gargunnock.

By this time James is away from home and finding his way in the world and he appears in Bothkennar, despite his usual residence being Gargunnock, marrying Elizabeth Robb in Bothkennar.

Neither James nor Elizabeth had easy access to the local opportunities for meeting: Elizabeth was a domestic servant working away from home in Blackford, presumably getting to visit home for odd days or weekends. There would be no good reason for James to visit Bothkennar: the appearance of James in Bothkennar may well have been specifically to work in Bothkennar and gave the couple the opportunity to meet. Either which way, James came to live in Bothkennar and is listed on the marriage certificate as a ploughman. It is therefore quite clear that James worked on a farm as a ploughman, used to working with horses, with a set of skills that the British Army, particularly the Royal Horse Artillery, would find useful.

Russell MacGillivray’s work on the monument in Bothkennar offers more information:

As soon as war was declared James enlisted in Alloa for the army. However, it was some time before he went to the Western Front as his service medals do not include the 1914 Star or the 1914-15 Star.

He returned home for a short period as he had suffered from trench fever. This was a common disease which was spread by the bites of body lice. The main symptoms were headaches, skin rashes, inflamed eyes and leg pains. The fever usually lasted for about five days, but relapses were common. Rarely a fatal disease, recovery usually took about a month.

15 pdr Artillery piece galloping into action

2/1st Battery RHA served in the UK from 1915 to 1918, in with 1916 joining first the 297th Brigade RFA and then the 298

Actg Bdr James Adamson died in action on 1st Sep 1917 aged 28