James Bannerman Lorimer

Lorimer enlisted in 9th Royal Scots in August 1914 reaching the rank of Lance Corporal before being commissioned Lieutenant in the 8th Cameron Highlanders in December 1914. He was promoted Captain in February 1916 and joined the 5th Battalion in France on 25th August 1916.

After this date there is confusion about which regiment Lorimer served in. If the CWGC website is taken as the ‘official’ record it seems that Lorimer was attached to the 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, presumably at the time of his death. However none of his death notices or entries in subsequent rolls of honour mention the Rifle Brigade until the recent one by the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society Club. The war diary for the 5th Cameron Highlanders is fairly detailed at that period and there is no record of Lorimer being posted away from the battalion after he joined in August 1916. When the battalion’s casualties are finally recorded in the war diary (10th May) none of the officers who were killed, wounded or missing after the assault of the previous week are named as one would expect .It is therefore unfortunately impossible to verify that Lorimer was one of the officers recorded as missing from that source. However he is not amongst the detailed list of casualties suffered by the 8th Battalion Rifle Brigade in May 1917 and found in their war diary.