18406 Private James Sweeney was a patient at Hickwells in October 1915 after being wounded at the Battle
of Loos. His entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads:
Pte J Sweeney 18406
13 Batt Royal Scots
wounded at Hill 70 26/9/15
during the Battle of Loos
A copy of this entry appears in part 10 of The Hospital Way. He shares this page with entries from fellow Scotsmen 7567 Private John Currie of the 10th Gordon Highlanders and S/7793 Private Andrew Geddes of the 1/7th Gordon Highlanders.
James was born at Newbattle, Midlothian. He arrived in France
on 9th July 1915 with the 13th Royal Scots which formed part of the 45th Brigade in the 15th (Scottish) Division. He was wounded at Hill 70 on the second day of the battle of Loos, 26th September 1915, the day that 18274
Private Robert Dunsire of the same battalion, won the Victoria Cross. The following
two paragraphs are adapted from part 10 of The Hospital Way.
James Sweeney may have been wounded by British
artillery fire dropping short onto the trenches that the 45th Brigade was holding. The
morning was misty and the artillery had been told that the trenches would be temporarily evacuated. But nobody had told the Scotsmen and the 13th Royal Scots in particular had suffered casualties. With classic understatement, The Official Historian would write many years later,
that the men upon whom the British shells fell “… were therefore somewhat shaken and not perhaps able to take
such a vigorous part in the assault as they might otherwise have done.”
By the time the attack was finally pressed at 9am,
the mist had lifted and although parties of the attacking battalions succeeded in breaking
through into the German lines where desperate hand-to-hand fighting ensued, they were simply overwhelmed. The attack failed not due to lack of determination on the Scotsmens’ part but because of heavy machine
gun cross-fire from both sides and artillery fire which either killed them as they ran or forced their surviving colleagues
to retire. The few remaining men of the Fifteenth Division could not, on their
own, re-take Hill 70. More help would be needed.
James probably arrived back in England at the beginning of October and after travelling first to the 2nd
Eastern General Hospital at Brighton, would have transferred shortly afterwards to Hickwell.
He obviously recovered from his wound and was transferred to the 12th Royal Scots Regiment in the 27th Brigade of the
9th (Scottish) Division. It was while serving with this battalion that he was
killed in action on 26th March 1918; one of four Royal Scots fatalities on that day.
James Sweeney has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 4 of the Pozieres memorial in France (above).
Sources and Acknowledgements
· The National Archives: Medal Index Card
· The National Archives: British War and Victory Medal Roll:
D/101 B9: Page 846: WO 329/631
· The National Archives: 1914/15 Star Roll: D/47 B: Page
85: WO 329/2612
· The National Archives: War Diary of 13th Royal
Scots Regt: WO 95/1946
· The National Archives: War Diary of 12th Royal
Scots Regt: WO 95/1773
· Soldiers Died In The Great War
· Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Debt of Honour Register
· Ken and Pam Linge for the photograph of James Sweeney's
name on the Pozieres Memorial
