James Simpson – Canadian Infantry, C.E.F., 27th Battalion

 Corporal James Simpson – Canadian Infantry, C.E.F., 27^th Battalion

Birth

James Simpson was born in 1890 in Swansea. Surviving records relating to his early life and family background are limited.

Military Service

James served as a Corporal with “A” Company, Canadian Infantry, C.E.F., 27^th Battalion. The battalion formed part of the 7^th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 2^nd Canadian Division, and saw sustained front-line service on the Western Front, including prolonged fighting in the Ypres Salient during 1917.

Canadian Infantry, C.E.F., 27^th Battalion — 6^th November 1917

On 6^th November 1917, the 27^th Battalion was engaged in the final phase of the Battle of Passchendaele, part of the wider Third Battle of Ypres. Canadian forces had just secured the shattered village of Passchendaele, but German resistance remained intense.

The battalion’s role on this day centred on holding and consolidating newly captured ground, reinforcing forward positions, and repelling counter-attacks under constant enemy fire. Although the main assault had achieved its objectives, the danger had not diminished. German artillery continued heavy shelling, targeting front-line trenches, communication routes, and assembly areas.

Conditions were among the worst encountered during the war. Relentless rain and continuous bombardment had reduced the battlefield to deep mud, with trenches collapsed or obliterated. Movement was slow and exhausting, and even routine tasks exposed men to lethal danger.

It was during this period of sustained shellfire and exposed front-line duty on 6^th November 1917 that Corporal James Simpson was killed in action, reflecting the grim reality that losses at Passchendaele continued even after objectives had been taken.

Commemoration

James Simpson
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres,
West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
credit - findagrave

James Simpson has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, which bears the names of Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient and whose final resting places are unknown.

His name stands as a reminder of the endurance and sacrifice of Canadian infantrymen during one of the most brutal campaigns of the First World War, far from his birthplace in Swansea