Taggart, Private James

Service highlights

  • Service number: 53858
  • Rank: Private
  • Born: Govan, 10 February 1886
  • Came to Canada: 1912
  • Worked: clerk in St. Marys, including at Dickson’s general store at the northwest corner of Queen and Church Streets, then as a clerk for J.P. Rogers’ grocery store on Queen Street
  • Married: 18 December 1914, to Myrtle Brown
  • Child: one son, James Taggart Junior, born 15 September 1915
  • Enlisted: 23 October 1914, enrolled by the 28th Perth Regiment into the 18th Canadian Infantry Battalion at the Stratford Armoury
  • Trained: Queen’s Park Barracks in London, now the Western Fairgrounds
  • Sailed: 29 April 1915 from Halifax on SS Grampian
  • Arrived in France: 15 September 1915, with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division
  • Killed in action: 9 October 1915 at Ridge Wood in the Ypres Salient
  • Buried: Ridge Wood Military Cemetery
  • Remembered: commemorated on the cenotaph in St. Marys

A Life and Service Remembered

James Taggart came to Canada in 1912 and built a life quickly. He settled in St. Marys and worked as a store clerk, the kind of job where you learn everyone’s names and hear everyone’s news. He even tried a fresh start out west in Calgary for a short time, but he came back and returned to steady work on Queen Street.

In December 1914, he married Myrtle Brown, and for a few months they had the ordinary, hopeful beginning of a young family. Then he left for overseas service, sailing on April 29th 1915 from Halifax on the SS Grampian. Their son, James Taggart Junior, was born in September 1915, months after James had already sailed. It is a hard detail to sit with, knowing he never got to hold his child.

After training and months of preparation, his battalion sailed for France on the same day as his sons birth reaching France in mid September 1915. The sector was described as relatively quiet, but quiet in the trenches could still turn deadly in seconds. On 9 October, while standing in a fire bay with others at Ridge Wood, German rifle grenades began to fall. After the first volley, he reportedly said they had missed. The next volley landed in the trench and killed him instantly.

His body was brought out that night and laid to rest at Ridge Wood Military Cemetery. His headstone carries words chosen by Myrtle: “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.”

Back home, his young wife carrying a six week old baby with her community, St. Marys marked his loss in a way people would have felt in their bones. On 31 October 1915, the Sons of Scotland held a memorial service at Knox Presbyterian Church, and mourners were led down Queen Street by a piper to the lament “Lochaber No More.”

Myrtle later remarried in 1919. Their son grew up, left St. Marys, served overseas in the Second World War, and later settled in Burlington. Many years later he provided a photograph of the father he never met, making sure James Taggart’s face was not lost to time.

Major battles and operations

  • Enlistment and training in Ontario with the 18th Battalion (late 1914 to spring 1915)
  • Overseas service in England with the battalion (spring and summer 1915)
  • Early Western Front service with the 2nd Canadian Division (from 15 September 1915)
  • Ypres Salient sector duty, including the Mount Kemmel and Sanctuary Wood area
  • Ridge Wood trench service, where he was killed by rifle grenade fire on 9 October 1915

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