Can you help us identify Jim Downie?

James Gordon Charles Downie, known as Jim, was born in January 1886, the fourth of the eight children in the family of William James Downie (1858-1922) and Mary Ann Cairns (1857-1937). Jim’s grandparents came from Wemyss in Fifeshire, Scotland while his mother was also Scottish, born in Ayrshire. The family home was at 24 Sharp St., Geelong and is still there.

Jim’s siblings were:

Jim was popular amongst his many friends and fellow workers - he had a ‘quiet unostentatious influence’. He came from a highly respected family - his father’s obituary stated he was a well-known and highly esteemed resident of Sharp Street, Chilwell. Keeping up the family’s reputation, Cr. Laidlaw, mayor of Newtown and Chilwell, had known Jim from his boyhood and spoke of his “sterling worth”.

Another friend, D. F Nelson, referred to Jim’s connection with the Presbyterian Guild, his devotion to duty, his manly bearing, and his successes both in the literary and sporting sections. Jim was one of the foundation members and best workers for the Presbyterian Guild.

Source: "MEMORIAL SCREENS UNVEILED." Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1929) 27 October 1919: 3. Web. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165412509

Also, as he was 5’10 3/4 ”, big for the time, his physical strength and skill made him a leader in cricket, football and gymnastics. He was the Captain of the Chilwell Football Club in 1911. He was also a Librarian of the Chilwell Free Library. Jim had worked in the Albion Woollen Mills from his boyhood. When the call to service came, he was a finisher at the mills.

Jim enlisted on 10 July 1915 at Geelong, Victoria and was assigned to the newly formed 29th Battalion, D Company. Training was at the Broadmeadows Camp. Several of his fellow D Company soldiers, Leslie and Gordon Kennedy, lived just several blocks away from Jim.

With Jim’s strong character and, at 29, being a bit older than many of the recruits, he was promoted to Corporal in early November and then to Sergeant in February. After a short period of military training, the 29th left Australia for Egypt on 10 November, 1915 sailing on the A11 Ascanius.

Before departing, the soldiers had been on parade in Melbourne in front of a good crowd and were reviewed by the Minister for Defence, H.F. Pearce, who said:

They arrived in Suez, Egypt on 7 December. Training and defence of the Suez Canal continued until mid-June with postings at Ismailia, Tel el Kebir, Ferry Post and Moascar. While in Tel el Kebir, the troops were reviewed by the Prince of Wales.

The call to the Western Front finally came and, the 29th boarded the troop ship Tunisian in Alexandria on 16 June, headed to Marseilles, arriving there on the 23rd. They then were on a train to Hazebrouck and Steenbeque and by the 26th were encamped in Morbecque, about 30 km from Fleurbaix. The Aussies were well received by the French. In a letter home, James Lang (858), 29th Battalion from Glengarry, Victoria, wrote:

Gas masks were now included in their training for the possible use of “lachrymatory shells” – tear gas. Training was tough. One day included a march of 16 miles carrying a 75 lb kit, which only the youngest and fittest could complete.

On 9 July they were moved to Erquingham, just outside of Fleurbaix and on the 10th they got their first experience in the trenches, with the “men all in good spirits”.

Source: AWM4 23/46/12 29th Infantry Battalion July 1916 page 3

They were back at their billets in Fleurbaix four days later. A gas alarm was sounded on the 15th, but there was no effect on the troops in Fleurbaix.

The 29th’s role was to be a ‘fourth’ battalion on the left flank of the attack. With the 30th, they were to provide support for the attacking 31st and 32nd Battalions by digging trenches, carrying supplies/ammunition and to be called in as reserves if needed for the fighting. The original attack was planned for the 17th, but bad weather caused it to be postponed.

On 19 July the 29th were in the rear trenches, ready for the attack. The 32nd’s charge over the parapet began at 5.53 PM and the 31st’s at 5.58 PM. There were machine guns emplacements to their left and directly ahead at Delrangre Farm and there was heavy artillery fire in No-Man’s-Land.

The initial assaults were successful and by 6.30 PM the Aussies were in control of the German’s 1st line system, which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom.”

Source: AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

By 8.00 PM, Jim’s D Company and A Company began to carry bombs and supplies to the front trenches. The Australians’ left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and the 32nd was told:

At 10.00 PM, additional support was being requested and C and D Companies joined in. Unfortunately, they found that a number of the grenades they were carrying had no fuses.

The Germans counter attacked and at 2.00 AM Jim’s D Company and A Company were fully engaged in the fighting. B and C Companies continued to carry supplies and providing cover for soldiers who were retiring from the battle. Surprisingly:

Fighting continued through the night. At 4.00 AM the Germans began an attack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into the communications trench on their far left William Tate’s (1254), who clearly knew Jim, stated that Jim was killed at this time.

As the battle moved on, given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, portions of the rearward trench had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to be in a position to surround the advanced soldiers.

With the Australian attack having been halted, they became exposed in a salient jutting into the German lines and were quickly enfiladed by German machine guns. “In the end, they basically had to fight their way back to their own lines, 'run for it', or be killed wounded or captured.”

Source: 29th Battalion VWMA https://vwma.org.au/explore/units/111

In the morning the battle was over. The 29th were left to hold the front line and, even though a cease fire was not in effect, they were busily bringing back a large number of wounded during the day and night. The nature of this battle was summed up by Private Jim Cleworth (784) from the 29th:

For a battalion supposed to be in a support role, the initial figures of the impact of the battle on the 29th was 17 soldiers died, 161 were wounded and 68 were missing. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large amount of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield.

Ultimately, 66 soldiers of the 29th Battalion were killed in action or died of wounds from the battle and 37 of them were unable to be identified.

Jim was not at roll call and was reported as “missing”. This was communicated to his family, but with the chaos of the battle no further details were available while the Army checked through POW, hospitals and witness reports in the months that followed.

The family was obviously anxious and was in contact with the Army and the Red Cross and they even placed an ad in the papers in November 1916 seeing if anyone had any information about Jim. One reply did try to give them some hope as a family member of theirs that had been missing was found to be a POW.

However, in January the Red Cross advised the family that Jim was not a POW. While William Tate’s and others’ statements are clear about Jim having been killed, there were other witness reports that ranged from him being wounded to being killed but buried behind the Australian lines. These were sent to the family in early 1917:

The family also sought to contact soldiers who had returned to Australia for any news. They did receive some responses, but they either had no hard information or had said that Jim had been killed. One touching letter written to one of Jim’s sisters was from Jim Archer (1051), who lived near to the family.

While he had no ‘hard’ news, his letter was very personal, recalling about walks and talks he had with Jim not long before the battle and noting that Jim had hoped to go to Scotland to see his the ”little village” where his mother was born so he could send a card home.

The Army did not turn up any further information and Jim was formally declared as having been Killed in Action in a 23 Aug 1917 Court of Inquiry in the Field. Even news of this came slowly the family wrote the Army on 12 Sept 1917 seeking if there was any news.

The reply was quick, but sadly there was nothing more than the Red Cross information to be offered. Still seeking some closure, they wrote in 1918 asking about the return of any of Jim’s belongings, but none were found. Jim was awarded the Star Medal, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal, a Memorial Plaque and a Memorial Scroll.

The memorial notices in the paper spoke to Jim’s character.

Jim left a legacy in his will, donating funds to the Newton Presbyterian Church Sunday School which was used for Memorial Screens.

He is commemorated at:

A mass grave the Germans had dug after the battle was found at Fromelles in 2008. It contained 250 bodies. The grave is in the vicinity of where Jim was fighting. To date (2024), 180 of the soldiers from the grave have been identified by DNA testing, including 22 of the 37 unidentified soldiers from the 29th Battalion.

While Jim was “missing”, curiously, his Army file does have a very brief, undated annotation about him being buried at Fromelles, along with some very general map coordinates which are in the area of the Pheasant Wood German burial pit that was found in 2008.

It is unknown how this information came to be associated with Jim, but of the eight known soldiers with this map reference on their file, six have been identified from the Pheasant Wood grave - Thomas William Francis, David Frederick Livingston, James Hugh Ross, Gordon Thomas Smith, Ernest Frank Wilkin and George Robert Barnatt.

Only James Gordon Charles Downie and Leslie Frederick Kennedy have not been located to date.

This raises the potential that Jim could be one of the yet unidentified soldiers in the burial pit. Family DNA donors are needed to find out if Jim could be one of these unidentified soldiers. If you know of any family contacts from Geelong, Victoria district or from their Scottish forbears, please contact the Fromelles Association.