Glenfarg War Memorial Project

James Smart

Private 147506 28th Battalion Canadian Infantry

Born 10 April 1881, Glenfarg, Perthshire.
Died 6 June 1916, Ypres Salient, Belgium.

James Smart was born at Glenhead (Cottage), Glenfarg on 10 April 1881, although he erroneously gave his date of birth on his Canadian attestation papers as 1883. His parents were John and Sarah (née Low) Smart, and although he gave his name as James Low Smart (and that is how he is recorded on his CWGC record) he was christened James Smart.

John and Sarah Smart, he a native of Kingskettle, Fife, and she of Arngask (Glenfarg), married at Arngask on 1 April 1862. They had several children: William born 1862, Isabella born 1863, Hugh born 1864, David born 1869, Eliza Jane born 1871, Mary Ann born 1877, Sarah born 1879, (our) James born 1881, Janett (Jeannie) born 1884.

The 1901 census shows James aged 19, a joiner's apprentice, living with his mother Sarah aged 63 (and her granddaughter Sarah Ann Wylie) still living at Glenhead Cottage, Great North Road, Glenfarg. His father, however, is at Pottiehill Farm, Dron, Perthshire, along with his son David aged 32 and daughters Sarah aged 22 and Janett aged 17.

James's mother Sarah died in 1902, and the 1911 census shows his father John aged 70, a widower and retired farmer, living again at Glenhead Cottage, Great North Road, with son David aged 40, a carting contractor, and daughter Sarah aged 32, a dressmaker.

It is possible that James emigrated to Canada after the death of his mother, where on 3 July 1915 at Winnipeg, Manitoba, he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force.

He died, aged 35, somewhere in the Ypres salient, Belgium, on 6 June 1916, his body never being recovered. He is commemorated on panel 18-26-28 of the Menin Gate Memorial, Ieper (Ypres).