CORPORAL JAMES GARDNER
CAMERON HIGHLANDERS
13TH JULY 1917 AGE 24
BURIED: BRANDHOECK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
James Gardner was born in Scoonie, Leven, Fife where in the 1901 census his father was a coal miner. I couldn't find any members of the family in the 1911 census but by the time of James' death he was married and living in Cardenden, another mining community in Fife. Gardner enlisted in Dunfermline and served with the 6th Battalion Cameron Highlanders, part of the 15th Division.
The 15th Division moved to the Ypres sector in June 1917 and spent the next month preparing for the big offensive that was to be launched on the 31 July. This involved either taking up supplies to the front, which had to be done at night since the Germans had command of the high ground and could see everything that moved during the day, or taking part in trench raids of vital importance in building up knowledge German strong points and troop positions. There is no specific information as to how Gardner met his death but danger lurked everywhere from the German guns that had the range of all the routes and regularly used gas shells to cause further havoc during the night, to the deep mud that sucked unwary soldiers down into their deaths.
Mrs Gardner used traditional epigraphic language and themes in this tender inscription, which has a very strong echo of the last line of Yeat's beautiful poem, 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven':
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.