b. 18/12/1894 Edinburgh, Scotland. d. 14/10/1918 Aubencheul-au-Bac, France.
James McPhie (1894-1918) was born on 18th December 1894 at 21 Salisbury Place, Rose Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Allan, was born in Edinburgh, and was an apprentice heraldic painter before later becoming a robber comb maker. He married Mary Barclay, a machine printer also from Edinburgh, on 25th March 1867 at 118 West Port. By 1881, Allan had become a commercial clerk. Mary died in 1886, and Allan remarried to Elizabeth Brennan, from Methil, Fife, on 11th January 1889 at 56 Lothian Street. Allan’s career then changed again becoming first a billiard room proprietor, then a turf commission agent. James had eleven siblings from his father’s two marriages.
James was educated at South Bridge School, Edinburgh and was an apprentice upholsterer in 1911. He joined the Territorial Force early in 1912, and served in City of Edinburgh (Fortress), Royal Engineers. On the outbreak of war, the unit mobilised to its war stations in the Forth Defences. During 1915 it formed 1/1st Edinburgh Field Company RE in 69th Division and embarked at Devonport, Devon on 19th December 1915. The Company arrived at Port Said, Egypt on 3rd -5th January 1916 and served as Army Troops on the Suez Canal defences between January and April 1916. They then left Egypt and arrived in Marseille, France on 24th April to join 56th Division.
James McPhie VC
On 14 October 1918, during the final Allied advance in France, McPhie was with a party of sappers maintaining a temporary cork bridge over the Canal de la Sensée near Aubencheul au Bac. At dawn, an infantry patrol which was crossing the canal started to bunch under German fire, causing the frail bridge to break up. McPhie and another man jumped into the water, holding the cork floats and timbers of the bridge together until the patrol was able to scramble across.
Realising that the safety of the patrol depended upon the bridge being repaired, James swam back and immediately set about collecting the necessary material. Undeterred by heavy fire, and rallying his men with the inspiring words “It is death or glory which must be done for the sake of our patrol on the other side”, he led the way back onto the bridge to begin the vital work. He was severely wounded almost at once, falling partly into the water, and died after receiving several more wounds, but his inspiring example ensured that contact was kept with the patrol on the far bank at a critical period.
James was originally buried in the chateau grounds at Aubencheul on 15th October and his remains were later removed to Naves Communal Cemetery Extension. The posthumous VC was presented to his mother by King George V in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace on 3rd April 1919. James is commemorated in several places – on the For Valour Board at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, Kent, with a VC commemorative stone placed at West Richmond Street, Edinburgh on 12th October 2018, is named on a scroll by the Edinburgh Union of Upholsterers which is in the Royal Engineers Museum Collection, and on a memorial in St Andrew’s and St George’s Church, Edinburgh.
In addition to his VC, he was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19 and Territorial Force War Medal 1919. The medals were loaned to the Imperial War Museum by his brother in 1963. In 1966, they were presented to the Museum by his sister, Elizabeth Missingchuk, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was the first VC group presented to the Museum.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM LONDON.
BURIAL PLACE: NAVES COMMUNAL CEMETERY, FRANCE.
PLOT II, ROW E, GRAVE 4.
Acknowledgement:
Kevin Brazier – Grave Photo and Cemetery Plan.