James Fotheringham Wilson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 7th of May 1875. According to his WWI service record he was 5 feet, 8 and half inches tall, had brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.
In civilian life he had served a 5 year apprenticeship as an electrical engineer with the firm Anderson and Munro in Glasgow.
From 1899 he served in the Boer War in South Africa with first the Orange River Colony Mounted Police (3 months) and later with the famous Driscoll’s Scouts (12 months).
After spending time in India, (he transferred from the Bombay Command of the Legion) he emigrated to Australia to take up a position as electrical engineer with the Lever Soap Works near Balmain.
In early 1912, prior to the birth of his son, he was one of a small team of Boer War Veterans establishing the NSW Command of the Legion of Frontiersmen. He later became Adjutant and CO of the Sydney Squadron.
During WWI he served from 1914 to 1918, serving at Gallipoli with the 4th Battalion, then France, discharging as a Company Sergeant Major. He reenlisted in 1919 in order to repatriate German prisoners of war from Australia to London, before being medically discharged the same year. Somehow during his WWI service he was promoted Lance Corporal, then Corporal, then straight to Company Sergeant-Major!After returning home from the war he volunteered with the South African Soldier’s Association in Sydney and also with the Gallipoli Legion in Sydney. he was a Veteran’s Welfare Officer for both organisations, assisting wounded and troubled Boer War and Great War Veterans.
He died in 1952 in Leichhardt in inner western Sydney.
Despite everything, he was certainly a scoundrel, and a big one too. In fact, one could only refer to him as a complete cad.
Here’s the story –
From the “Truth” newspaper, Sydney 24NOV1912 – https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/168743865
“BALD ROCK BEAU
Makes Off With a Moll
AND LEAVES HIS FAMILY LAMENTING
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER’S EXCESSIVE ENERGY
A very smart Alick named James Jotheringham Wilson, who is employed as electrical engineer at Lever Bros soapworks at Bald Rock, was before Mr Smithers, SM, at the Balmain Police Court on Wednesday, on a summons issued by his wife, a young woman “not ower lang oot fra Scotland, and nursing a wee bairn”. Mrs Wilson, who was brought out from Scotland by the smart Alick a twelvemonth ago, wanted support, and in addition wanted her husband to forget his wanton and return to the bosom of his family. Wilson however, declared that it was impossible for him to make friends with his wife. According to the evidence, the wife gave birth to a child on September 26th last, but Wilson took such little interest in the matter that he did not bother to visit his wife in her trouble. It was evidently…
A SAD HOME
…into which the babe was ushered. Two months went by, and still the father came not. The reason for this was that he had no time either for his deserted wife or his child, being at that very time, and for some time before and after, engaged in promiscuous intercourse with a woman of easy morals named Meiklejohn, whom report says was a barmaid, used to jerking bug-juice for thirsty souls, However that may be, she certainly jerked Wilson’s affections out of their proper place, and lived with him in adultery at a boarding-house kept by a Mrs Bell, who wasn’t called to give evidence as to whether she was aware of the queer relationship or not. Wilson, who saw his child for the first time in court, admitted that he and the woman Meiklejohn had lived…
AS A MARRIED COUPLE
…for some months, but he said in extenuation, ‘We are not living together now.’ He said that during his wife’s confinement he did not keep her short of money, but had given her 46s a week, and 1￡a week since. he was positive that he had given his wife ￡29 12s during the past quarter. Mrs Wilson, seeing that she couldn’t get her husband back, expressed her willingness to accept 35s per week. Mr Smithers said it seemed that Wilson wished to keep ￡3 out of each week’s wages…
FOR HIS OWN PERKS
…and expected his family to subsist on 20s. An order was made for 50s per week, with 31s costs.
Troubles seldom come singly, and in the unfortunate Mrs Wilson’s case, she became an immigrant, a mother and a deserted wife within a twelve month period, and has little love for her first year’s colonial experiences.”
What’s not mentioned in the newspaper story is that the barmaid of ill-repute, the promiscuous Ms “Mieklejohn” was in fact Ms Meikleham, and was the daughter (or perhaps younger sister) of Legion Trooper Donald Meikleham, who had recently transferred over to NSW Command from the Lowlands Command in Scotland. I would suggest that the slight alteration of the young woman’s surname in the press was to allow her to preserve some sliver of honour and provide a modicum of plausible deniability if ever asked about it by one of her pub patrons.
The NSW Command’s new Commandant , a professional Officer from the local Garrison Artillery named Major Chaseling, lobbed straight into this mess. Not only was his adjutant Legion Lieut Wilson showing up in the newspapers for all sorts of sordid reasons, but there appears to have been a feud within the unit, which I am confident was caused by one Legion Lieutenant’s dalliances with a barmaid known quite well by one of his Legion Troopers.
Whatever happened, there was constant bickering and white-anting of the chain of command within the unit. Unable to cope since he lacked any real disciplinary powers over these unprofessional rampaging renegades, MAJ (Legion LTCOL) Chaseling spat the dummy and declared that he was converting the command over to a social club, nothing more. It didn’t happen of course.
Later still, he ordered than any intending Legion officers needed to have a certificate of competency issued by Legion LTCOL Chaseling to ensure suitability before they could take office. But that was shutting the gate after the horse had bolted.
In desperation, the Commandant drew up plans for a Grand Legion Council for Australasia which would have had the power to compel such disruptive activity to cease within a Legion unit. With zero support from his subordinates and little interest from other commands in Australia and New Zealand, nothing came of that plan either.
By mid-march 1913, just five months after taking office as Commandant of the NSW Command, Legion LTCOL Chaseling quit., his departure depriving the embryonic NSW Legion Command of the wisdom, experience and influence of a professional serving military officer.
The next month, Legion CAPT James Suffern took the reins as acting Commandant and set about calming things down and cleaning up the toxic environment that the NSW Command and particularly Sydney Squadron had become.
So what happened to Legion LT Wilson throughout all of this? Not a thing, he may have been a scoundrel and cad outside the Legion, but he performed his duties within the Legion to a high standard and so his position was never in doubt.
I wonder if the same could be said for Trooper Meikleham?