SECOND LIEUTENANT ERIC LIEUELLEN JAMIESON
ARGYLL AND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS
22ND AUGUST 1917 AGE 31
BURIED: DOCHY FARM NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, YPRES, BELGIUM
Sine metu - without fear - is the motto of the Jameson family of the Irish whiskey brand. Eric Jamieson's brother, Andrew, chose his inscription, putting it in inverted commas. Was he indicating that the two families were related? Although John Jameson, to whom the arms and motto were granted in the mid 1800s came from County Galway, Ireland, his grandfather, John Jameson, came from County Clackmannan, Scotland. There could therefore have been a tangental connection.
Eric Jamieson was one of eight children. He had a twin brother, Ion, who became an expert in traditional Scottish country dances in the 1930s. In 1911 both Eric and Ion were apprentices. Unfortunately whoever transcribed the census has written 'Apprentice Statione', whatever that might mean.
Eric served with the 11th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. On 22 August 1917 the Battalion was in the front line north of the Ypres-Roulers Railway line. The war diary reported that at 4.45 am the British barrage opened and the battalion advanced to be met almost immediately by heavy machine gun fire and sniping. By 6.05 the telephone lines had been cut, it was impossible for runners to get through and battalion HQ became dependent on pigeons for information.
The Battalion remained in the front line on the 23rd, described by the author of the diary as a 'trying day', at the end of which Lt J.F.C. Cameron was the only officer in the front line. The Battalion came out of the line with its C.O. Adjutant Lt Cameron and some 140 O.R.s. Lt E.L Jamieson was among the missing, a fact reported in the Linlithgow Gazette on 7 September, which hoped that he might be a prisoner. But a month later the same paper reported that it was believed he had fallen on the day he went missing.
It was October 1920 before his body was found in an unmarked grave, identified by his disc, badge and pince-nez glasses.