LIEUTENANT JAMES LUNAN
GORDON HIGHLANDERS
20TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 24
BURIED: POELCAPELLE BRITISH CEMETERY, BELGIUM
The diary entry was written the day before James Lunan's death; he knew what was in store for him. The next day he was to lead his men in an attack on the German lines on the opening day of the Battle of Menin Road, part of Third Ypres. Attacking across a 14,500 yard front, the British achieved their objectives, showing what could be done in good weather and with a well-prepared attack.
But James Lunan was killed - as he obviously suspected he might be. We don't know how but three years later, on 10 August 1920, his body was discovered at map reference U.30.a.3.6. with no grave marker, which would indicate that he was killed in circumstances where it was not possible to retrieve and bury his body.
His faith in God was no temporary eve-of-battle phenomenon; Lunan, as the Aberdeen Press and Journal report of his death on Friday 28 September 1917 recorded, was an active member of the Boys Brigade connected with his church, Skene Street Congregational Church, where he was also secretary of the Sunday School. He came from a professional Aberdeen family where he had been educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Robert Gordon College and worked at The North of Scotland and Town and County Bank Ltd. A member of the Territorial Force, he was called up on the outbreak of war. He served on the Western Front from February 1915 and achieved the rank of sergeant. Commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders in December 1915, he returned to Flanders in January 1917.