On 23rd August 2017, we will commemorate the centenary of the death of Captain James Wilson, MC, Oxf & Bucks LI, Royal Army Medical Corps.

He qualified as a surgeon at the London Hospital. He married in 1912 and had one son who was awarded one of the War Memorial Scholarships to come to Radley. The family still maintain their connection with the school.

‘How much we shall all miss him you can perhaps understand better than I can tell you. He was hit early in the evening, but insisted on going on with his work for six hours after he was wounded. Our admiration for his gallantry and devotion to duty knows no bounds. His name will be a lasting and inspiring memory to the officers and men of this battalion.’

Two of the stretcher-bearers from his aid post who were with him when he died revisited the site in 1930. They wrote a poem about the incident entitled ‘The Pilgrimage’. This was discovered by the descendants of one of them in the 2000s. An excerpt was published in the Old Radleian in 2008.

 

Research by Jock Mullard. We are very grateful to all the families involved in this story. The full text of the Old Radleian magazine can be accessed at Radley Archives