Lieutenant
James Francis Gordon STIRLING
MC
Infantry
Died: 15th September 1916 - Age: 59

Commemorated:

1. Memorial:London Cemetery And Extension, Longueval9.A.35.
2. Book:The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918Pg.136
3. Memorial:The (1940) Scroll - WW1 Roll of Honour22C GQS
    

Awards & Titles:

Military Cross
 

Early Life :

James Francis Gordon Stirling, known as Gordon Stirling.

Family :

Parents: Charles James Robert STIRLING (born about 1857 in Bath, SOM, ENG - died in 1945 in BC, CAN) and Frances Mary STRATHY (born about 1859 in Kingston, Ontario, CAN - died in 1946).

Their children were Elvira, Ethel (Mrs. R. Belli-Bivar), Mrs. Luard Carveth-Wells, Mrs. John Freeman, and an only son, Gordon.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

Unit / Ship / Est.: Machine Gun Corps 

Action : The Battles of the Somme 1916 

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

The late Lieut. Gordon Stirling had been in the B.C. Horse at Kelowna for three years before the outbreak of war. When war was declared he at once enlisted in the Strathcona Horse and left for England with his regiment as Orderly to Colonel McDonald. After the Lord Mayor's Show in London, in which pageant he was one of those chosen to represent the Canadian Troops, he was offered a temporary commission in the Horse Guards familiarly known as "the Blues" and after a period spent in training in this capacity went to the front as Second Lieutenant in that regiment.

He was shortly afterwards employed as Remount Officer for his regiment and obtained several drafts of horses in England which he took charge of and duly delivered to his regiment at the front. Being subsequently invalided with Trench Fever he spent sometime in a hospital after which he was removed to London for convalescence. In order to get back to the firing line as quickly as possible, and as cavalry was not wanted at the time. he took the opportunity offered him of a permanent commission in the Scots Guards and, after machine gun training, joined the machine gun section of Guards Brigade at the front subsequently being made second in command of the Brigade machine guns.

He went through much severe fighting with no injury excepting a slight wound in the hand caused by a bomb and in June last obtained the Military Cross for valour in going out under heavy fire to bring in two wounded men who were lying out in the open. The circumstances under which this perilous duty was performed were exceptional in the extreme. Word was brought in by a wounded artillery officer, who crawled back into the camp, that two wounded men were lying out under fire. Lieut. Stirling at once went to their assistance but finding the men too badly wounded to move. had to return for stretcher bearers. Two of these went back with the gallant Lieutenant but one lost his nerve and could not continue the journey so it devolved upon Lieutenant Stir1ing and the other gallant fellow (who secured the D.C.M. for his bravery) to do their best. They brought back one of the wounded men and then returned to the scene and succeeded in getting the other back to the line.

Singularly enough neither Lieutenant Stirling nor the stretcher bearer who assisted him received any wounds whilst undertaking this perilous duty but unfortunately one of the injured men was hit a second time whilst being carried into safety. It took about an hour to perform this arduous task during which Lieutenant Stirling had his steel helmet hit several times whilst his tunic was fairly riddled.

Detail :

A cablegram containing the sad news of the death of this brave young officer was received by his parents last week-end. No word had been previously received as to his being wounded at all and it is therefore surmised that the wounds which were the cause of his death must have been inflicted at one of the daring battles which took place in the course of last week when the Guards and others succeeded in capturing. three lines of German trenches.

Masonic :

TypeLodge Name and No.Province/District :
Mother : Friends in Council No. 1383 E.C.London

Initiated
Passed
Raised
4th March 1915
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-
 

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

Additional Source:

Last Updated: 2020-04-12 05:00:53