Lieutenant James Arthur Ross FERGUSON
3rd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, attached to the 1st Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

Date of birth: 12th May 1897
Date of death: 9th May 1915

Died of wounds aged 17
Commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing Panel 20
He was born at Thornton Heath in Surrey on the 12th of May 1897 the only son of Dr Robert James Ferguson MD, general practitioner and surgeon to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, and Gertrude Kate (nee Williams) Ferguson of 10 St George’s Place, Canterbury.

He was educated at the Abbey School, Beckenham, at Durston House, Ealing and at the King's School Canterbury from January 1911 to July 1914, where he won a Junior Scholarship in December 1912. He won his 1st XV Rugby colours in 1912 and was a member of the Rowing IV at stroke in 1913, winning his Rowing Colours the same year. In 1914 he was appointed Captain of both rugby and rowing.

In 1913 the Cantuarian wrote of his rugby:-

"Very fair forward and should do well next year."

He was appointed as a monitor in 1914 and was a member of the Officer Training Corps where he achieved Certificate A on the 25th of November 1913 and attained the rank of Sergeant in January 1914.

On the outbreak of war he was attending the OTC annual camp at Tidworth, which began on the 28th of July, but instead of returning to school after the holidays he applied for a commission in the Special Reserve of Officers on the 5th of August 1914 on a form which was signed by his father. He expressed a preference for either the East Kent Regiment (the Buffs) or the 3rd Reserve Regiment of Cavalry. On the 12th of August he underwent a medical examination at which he was declared fit for general service. He also supplied a letter in support of his application dated the 6th of August and signed by both the Headmaster of King's, Mr McDowall and by Captain Poole, Officer Commanding the King's School Officer Training Corps.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment on the 15th of August 1914 and was attached to the 1st Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, embarking for France on the 31st of March 1915.

While in Belgium he wrote a letter which was reproduced in the Cantuarian:-

"I am writing this just outside my dugout on a table pinched from a farm on our right. After having had quite a good time at Rouen, we marched from our billets which are about seven miles behind the trenches at ------. The Company is in support in a wood, a hundred behind them. the Germans shell the wood every now and then, just to keep our heads down, and yesterday we had thirty shells in three quarters of an hour; they make a priceless scream. ----, another Sub, who shares my dugout, and I pushed forward to the edge of the wood and were watching the Germans shelling a village with high explosives, which throw an enormous column of earth into the air, when shrapnel began to burst about a hundred yards in front, ---we scooted back to our dugout and soon shells were bursting overhead. About a hundred yards behind, in the wood, was a farmhouse, which was the scene of fierce fighting between 3rd Coldstreams and the Germans about three months ago.......yesterday a spent shrapnel shell, fired by one of our own anti aircraft guns at a Taube, came down within ten paces of me and exploded. I got some earth in the back and one casualty---one button off my breeches!
On our way to inspect a line of trenches, six miles from out huts, we passed through a village, nearly ruined, close to the trenches, and I went in to the little chapel,--all the images etc. were smashed, and there was half a six inch shell unexploded, sticking in the floor.
.....We've been in these trenches now for three times as long as usual. That's our share of this "do" for Calais. We're peppered with bullets, hand grenades, rifle ditto, trench mortars, shrapnel any old thing in fact. These trench mortars are beastly things; you see them coming--about the size of a whisky bottle, full of the highest explosive going ---turning over and over in the air, and when they come down there is ---some explosion! The other day about twenty fell, all within twenty yards of me---most cheery! Here's another one now----Bust! One came down as I was partaking of some eggs and bacon---put out the candle, sent the bacon flying, covered me with earth and made me bite my tongue. Another burst just above an officer's dugout; one piece went through and sent a roast chicken which they'd been looking forward to for days, flying through the doorway.
At night we and the Germans send up flares---sort of very bright rockets---and these set the wood on fire every now and then. Blooming weird sight!
We've just had the Brigade band playing outside the huts; all the old things, dear old waltzes etc. which bring back all the peace and fragrance of England makes one realise that it is jolly well worth fighting.

On the 8th of May 1915 the 1st Battalion King's Own Yorkshire light Infantry found themselves at the head of the Ypres Salient at Frezenburg and were subjected to particularly heavy shelling by high explosive, A and B Companies being shelled out of their trenches. C and D Companies resisted three German infantry attacks, withdrawing at nightfall to positions slightly in the rear.

During this action, which was part of the Second Battle of Ypres, Lieutenant Ferguson was wounded in the head by a gunshot and died the following day.

His parents received the following telegram:-

"Deeply regret to inform you that 2Lt J.A.R. Ferguson Royal Sussex Regt was killed in action 10th May. Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy."

His Commanding Officer, Colonel Bond wrote:-

"Your son was shot through the head in the same trench that I was in. before he was shot we were being heavily shelled, and he behaved in a most gallant way keeping his platoon cheerful, under the most trying circumstances. By his death we have lost a most gallant and dashing officer. I have forwarded his name to Headquarters for his gallant conduct on that day....his cheerful disposition and his keenness will remain with me for many years"

The Cantuarian wrote:-

"We who knew and loved him at school are proud and humbly thankful to read his Colonel's words. He ran the straight race. As his record shows he was destined to exert a great influence over the school. We know that he would have risen to his responsibilities and that he would have made his good influence felt. He had no use for anything that was low or mean or unworthy. he was a jealous guardian of the good name of the school to which he was devoted, and the school is poorer this day because Ross Ferguson is now lying in a soldier's grave "somewhere in France" but richer in the possession of an honoured and cherished memory."

He is commemorated on the Canterbury war memorial in the Buttermarket and in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, Canterbury Cathedral.
Day Boy

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