Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Staff Sergeant James Dodds Stewart (Service No:Q191515) enlisted in the ACMF on 12 July 1940 as a Private attached to NC Signals. Promoted to Staff Sergeant by August 1943, he served with QLD Line of Command (LoC) Signals and was attached to 1 Australian Line Construction Group at Discharge (compassionate) on 11 November 1943.

James was born in Wigtownshire, Scotland in 1890, second of six children of James Stewart (b1860 Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland) and Elizabeth Dodds (b1862 in Wigtownshire, Scotland). James Snr (a Corporal with Royal Scots Fusiliers) adn Elizabeth (a Domestic Servant) married in 1883 in Renfrewshire, Scotland. They lived in Wigtownshire and Ayrshire where James Snr was a Woodcutter, Plate Layer, Labourer and Scavenger. The family immigrated after 1901, and were in Fremantle WA when James Snr died in 1911.

James worked as a Hospital Assistant in Perth, where in 1913 he married Margaret Tolmie (b1893 in Forfarshire, Scotland). James served in WWI (Sapper; Service No:16758) and following his Discharge, he and Margaret settled with their children in Busselton as part of the Group Settlement Scheme (Group Settlemetn 9). In the late 1920s the family returned to Perth, where James worked as a Foreman and Carpenter. Following Margaret's death in 1938. James remarried in 1939 to Olive May Ross (b1907 at Midland Junction, Guildford, WA) - Olive was working as a Nurse at Perth Hospital. In 1940 James and Olive moved to Brisbane, QLD where James worked as a Physical Culture Instructor and Masseur. Following his Discharge from the ACMF, they returned to WA, where James was a Storkeeper in Tardun. In 1950 he was allotted a Dairy Farm under the War Service Land Settlement Scheme and he and Olive moved to Pinjarra where James was a Dairy Farmer (Naranio Farm). In the late 1950s James and Olive left Pinjarra and settled in Medina, Kwinana where James worked as a Gardener until his death in 1970.