Notes
The Roll lists his address as 30 Goodyers Yard, and that he was entitled to the 1914 Star medal. It records that he died on 12/10/1917, which was apparently the date of death notified to his family, but which differs from official records.
(CWGC records that Private James Scott Irving, regimental number 28375, died on 20/10/1917 serving in the 6th Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, and is commemorated on Tyne Cot memorial in Belgium; their Burial Return Form states that James' body was reinterred in New Irish Farm Cemetery at Ypres in 1920. CWGC's online database states that James was aged 19 when he died, but is seemingly a typo, as their Casualty Registers do not record his age and his Army records indicate he was aged 34. Soldiers Died in the Great War records James as a native of Dumfries who was living in Peterborough when he enlisted; it recorded his date of death as 20/10/1917. The Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects likewise record that he died on 20/10/1917, and that his widow Margaret was his legatee. This date tallies with the information held by CWGC, and was James' official date of death. The Medal Rolls record that James initially served in the 2nd Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers under regimental number 8381. The Army Pension file for James Scott Irving of that regimental number records that he was aged 20 years and 10 months when he enlisted in April 1904, i.e. he was born in June 1883. His original next of kin was his mother, Margaret Connell Irving of English Street in Dumfries, but later changed following his marriage to Margaret McQueen on 16/7/1908 at Dumfries. The Pension file records that on 17/1/1916 James was released to work at Sage & Company Ltd at Walton in Peterborough. On 8/2/1916 he was posted to the King's Own Scottish Borderers' Depot, from which he was discharged on 19/11/1916. According to the Medal Rolls, he later joined the 6th Battalion under regimental number 28375. When James' death was announced on page 3 of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard on 1/12/1917, it was stated that his widow in Peterborough had "received official intimation that her husband, Private James Scott Irving, K.O.S.B., was killed on 12th November in France... He was 34 years of age...". On the same page, however, a message from his widow read: "In loving memory of my dear husband, James Scott Irving, who was killed in action on the 12th of October 1917". The following year, on 12/10/1918, his widow inserted an in memoriam message in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard that again gave his date of death as "October 12th 1917", which she clearly still believed that to be the date he died. Official records state, however, that James died on 20/10/1917).