Gough, Private James

Service highlights

  • Service Number: 400729
  • Born: Larne, County Antrim, age 25 at death
  • Enlisted: 3 March 1915 at London, Ontario, initially with the 33rd Battalion
  • Overseas passage: sailed 13 March 1916 aboard the SS Lapland, arriving 26 March 1916
  • Transferred: to the 18th Battalion on 16 May 1916, joined the battalion in France on 7 June 1916
  • Killed in action: 3 October 1916, in the trenches near Courcelette, France
  • Commemorated: Vimy Memorial, no known grave, St. Marys cenotaph

A Life and Service Remembered

James Gough was born in Larne, County Antrim, with family rooted at Larne Harbour, and later ties that reached across the Atlantic to Ontario. When he enlisted in March 1915, he stepped into a war that had already proven what it could take from a family. His brother, 7406 Private Samuel Gough of the 2nd Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment, had been killed in September 1914, in the opening months of the fighting. That kind of loss can freeze a household in place but not the Gough family, shortly after Samuel’s death his brothers Stephen would enlist followed several months later by James.

After enlistment, James trained and prepared with the 33rd Battalion, then sailed from Canada in March 1916. His ship, the SS Lapland, carried him into the long waiting grind of camps and depots, followed by the sharper reality of France. In May 1916 he was transferred into the 18th Battalion (Western Ontario), CEF, and by early June he had joined the battalion in the field.

The Somme battles of 1916 were defined by shattered ground, trench lines gained and lost, and relentless pressure measured in yards. James was killed in action on 3 October 1916, reported in the trenches near Courcelette. He was 25. With no known grave, his name is preserved on the Vimy Memorial.

For St. Marys, Ontario, his story carries an added weight: his sister Mrs. E. Minor was left behind there, and his name stands on the cenotaph there as a reminder that the war reached into homes through more than one doorway. For the Gough family, it reached twice, first with Samuel in 1914, and then with James in 1916.

Major battles and operations

  • Western Front, France
  • Battle of the Somme, operations in the Courcelette area

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