James Lochhead Jack

James Lochhead Jack was the son of Peter Jack of Paisley. He was commissioned in the Cameronians from the Militia on 9 September 1903. At the age of 23 his Regular military career had made something of a late start, but he had served with the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Scottish Horse in the South African War while a Militia officer. He was Adjutant of 1st Cameronians from November 1908 until November 1911, but went to war with his battalion as a company commander.

1st Cameronians were originally deployed to France as Lines of Communication troops before joining the 19th Brigade, an independent formation attached to no division. Jack was Staff Captain at the HQ of 19th Brigade from 28 August until 2 November 1914 before returning to regimental duty. He was appointed CO 2nd Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, 23rd Brigade, 8th Division, on 22 August 1916, commanding it until 31 July 1917, when he was wounded on Bellewaarde Ridge during the first day of Third Ypres. He did not return to active service for nearly a year, but this time as CO of his old battalion. Jack commanded 1st Cameronians until promoted GOC 28th Brigade on 11 September 1918. He was 38.

This translation from captain to general in four years says more about the war than about Jack, who was a notably unambitious man whose horizons in the normal course of events would not have risen above the battalion level. The original 28th Brigade had been broken up in May 1916 to accommodate the arrival in 9th (Scottish) Division of the South African Brigade. It was the withdrawal of the South African Brigade from the line that promoted the reforming of 28th Brigade. Jack commanded it for the rest of the war and during the final battles in Flanders.

After the Armistice Jack reverted to his regimental rank of lieutenant-colonel, commanding 9th Cameronians (March-April 1919). His retirement on 22 April 1921, however, did not end his military career. He commanded 5/6th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders TA (1925-9) and the Argyll and Sutherland Brigade TA (1929-33) and raised and commanded the Market Harborough Battalion Home Guard (1940).

Jack’s principal importance, however, is as a diarist. He kept a diary throughout the war. It was published in 1964 as General Jack’s Diary, 1914-1918, edited by John Terraine. The title is somewhat misleading. Jack was a general for less than three months. The diary has most to say about his period as a battalion commander, particularly of 2nd West Yorkshires in 1916-17. Jack hated the war, hated trench raids and admired the BEF’s senior commanders struggling to fight a resolute enemy ‘with amateur staffs’. He set an outstanding example of duty and personal courage to his subordinates, mostly ‘temporary gentlemen’. He applied the old pre-war Regular standards of smartness and discipline, though he was never callous. Some of his junior officers found this irksome and irrelevant.

Others, notably his Adjutant Sidney Rogerson, found their CO a source of inspiration and confidence, though they never understood him, not that Jack was interested in being understood. He did not seek approval. His diary remains an important source for our understanding of trench warfare and a powerful testimony to the professional competence and humanity of the best type of pre-war regimental officer.