S9619
SMYTHE, James Hugh
| Service Number: | 969 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 2 September 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 7 October 1882 |
| Home Town: | Adelaide, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen, Scotland |
| Occupation: | Farmer and writer |
| Died: | Torphins, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 18 April 1962, aged 79 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Echt Kirkyard, Echt, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 2 Sep 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 10th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 969, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 969, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Adelaide | |
| 7 Aug 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, 969, 10th Infantry Battalion, The August Offensive - Lone Pine, Suvla Bay, Sari Bair, The Nek and Hill 60 - Gallipoli, Gun shot wounds to side, shoulder and thigh | |
| 24 Apr 1918: | Wounded AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 969, 10th Infantry Battalion, German Spring Offensive 1918, Gunshot wound to right forearm/wrist | |
| Date unknown: | Wounded 969, 10th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour James Hugh Smythe's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Steve Smythe
James Hugh Smythe was born on 7th October 1882 at Aboyne Castle Gardens, where his father George Henderson Smythe was Head Gardener. When James was nine, his father became the proprietor of the Balcarres Hotel in Echt, where James lived for the next ten years or so. During this period he attended Echt Public School and then, from 1898 to 1900, Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen.
In addition to running the Hotel, George was a farmer and ran an express horse bus service from Tarland to Aberdeen. After leaving Robert Gordon’s, James (who was an expert horseman) became a driver for the horse bus service and helped out in the stables.
In 1910, James travelled out by ship to Canada, where he took on a “homestead” in Medicine Hat, Alberta - adjacent to the homesteads of two of his cousins. Homesteads were plots of land that were given free of charge by the Canadian Government provided the occupant built a dwelling and cultivated the land. A large number of Scottish folk emigrated to Canada to start a new life under this scheme.
Unlike his cousins, James didn’t stay long on his homestead and, instead, embarked on extensive travels through Canada, USA and Mexico, working as a cowboy and a range of other occupations, including working on a dredger on the Sacramento River.
After returning to Scotland, James then embarked on a voyage to Australia with his brother, delivering a consignment of horses. While he was there, the Great War broke out and, in September 1914, he enlisted in the 10th Infantry Battalion of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (“ANZAC”). After training in Egypt, James was amongst the first soldiers to land at ANZAC beach, Gallipoli, Turkey on 25 April 1915, where he was engaged in trench warfare for the next nine months, sustaining gunshot wounds in three places in August 1915. In 1916, the 10th Battalion transferred to Flanders where James was involved in several battles and more trench warfare. James received leave of absence in July 1917 to return to Scotland for a week for his marriage to Jessie Murray from Midmar. James sustained a further gunshot wound at Météren in April 1918. This last injury marked the end of James’ military service as he never returned to the battlefield and was invalided out of the army at the end of the war.
Returning to Australia in 1919 with Jessie and a badly-injured wrist, he found employment in a hardware shop. Having by then had two children, George (b.1920) and Murray (b. 1923), he found life tough and the family returned to Scotland in 1925. James and Jessie took on a croft at Craigshannoch before moving to a larger croft at Barrowsgate, Drumoak.
It was here that James started writing, initially for his own amusement but, in 1933, Jessie persuaded him to publish a small volume of poetry in the Doric entitled “The Blethers of Barrowsgate”.
The success of this book led to a regular weekly column in the Aberdeen Bon Accord and Northern Pictorial newspaper entitled “Bitties Fae Barrowsgate”. This column ran for nearly eight years and numbered around 400 articles (mostly wry observations on life in the North-East), all written in the Doric. As such, it was an important contribution to the preservation of the Doric language during a period when it was falling into disuse due to the widespread adoption of English as the official language in Scotland, and generally only spoken at home.
After Barrowsgate, James took on a succession of increasingly large crofts and small farms in North East Aberdeenshire, culminating in a 120 acre farm at Rothiemay, which he ran from 1943 with the help of his younger son, Murray until his retirement to Torphins in 1952.
James died on 18 April 1962, aged 79, and was survived by Jessie and both sons. Perhaps his best epitaph is the one he composed himself.
There niver wis a bletherskate
Like crafter Jeems o’ Barrowsgate,
Nor yet his marra, roun an’ roun,
For poorin’ oot a shoo’er o’ soun’.
The gab o’ him, wad deave the deid,
An’ fairly split a livin’ heid,
An’ gar ye wish he’d tyne his tongue
Or else be eyther droont or hung.
Weel, maybe this may be his en’,
And maybe no’: ye niver ken;
Gif he’d set aff wi’ sic a claik
An trip ower’s tongue an’ brak’ his neck;
Then on his tomb we’d read together:
“Aneth this steen there lies a blether.”
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