SON OF YELL MAN KILLED AT SUEZ, AUGUST 1916. Trooper James Jamieson, Service No 11/1717, Wellington Mounted Rifles, was killed on the 12th of August, 1916. He was the third son of Laurence and Elizabeth Jamieson, of 57 Aurora Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand. His father was originally from Hascosay, Colgrave Sound, Yell, Shetland. In turn James was recorded in the Shetland Roll of Honour and Service. James occupation upon enlistment was a Grocer. James enlisted with the Wellington Mounted Rifles on the 23rd of August, 1915. He disembarked and left for the Suez Canal section on the 18th of November, 1915. The Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment (WMR) was one of four mounted rifles regiments raised to serve overseas in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) during the First World War. Most of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force sailed for France in April 1916. However, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles stayed in Egypt as part of an Anzac Mounted Division which was assisting in helping to defend Egypt against the Turkish. A change in British strategy in the area resulted in what was a defensive strategy being changed into an offensive one. The fight was taken to the Turkish with an attempt to destroy their basis in the Sinai Penninsula. The advance this new strategy required was made possible by the construction of a railway and water pipeline eastwards from the Suez Canal across the Sinai Desert. James was killed during an air raid in the canal zone. James is buried in the Kantara War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt, Grave Reference A.48. The Cemetery is on the eastern side of the Suez Canal, 160 kilometres north east of Cairo. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal. Sources Shetland Family History Society Commonwealth War Graves Commission Archives of New Zealand NZ History Resource Photographs: Shetland Roll of Honour Photograph, WMR Troopers, (National Anzac Centre) Extract from Service Record (NZ Archives, Campaign Area Map, (NZ History Resource) Kantara War Memorial Cemetery (CWGC).
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 23:20:36 +0000
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