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James Fergus Mackain (my 3rd cousin 3 times removed) was born at Bognor, Sussex on 28th October 1885, the eldest child of the Rev. William James McKain and his wife Helen (nee Morecroft). James was killed in action in Flanders in 1914.
ENTRY IN DE RUVIGNY'S ROLL OF HONOUR 1914-18
"Captain, 34th Sikh Pioneers, Indian Army, elder son of the Rev. William James Mackain, of Ardnamurchan, Aubrey Lodge, Merton Park, formerly Rector of Parham, Sussex, and subsequently Vicar of Little Waldingfield and Posingford, Suffolk, by his wife, Helen Clifford, dau. of the late John Johnstone Elton Morecroft of Hollymount, West Derby, Liverpool; b. Bognor, co. Sussex 28 Oct. 1885; educ. Warden House School, Upper Deal; Clifton College (where he was a member of the Bisley VIII of 1902),and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; gazetted 2nd Lieut., unattached, Indian Army, 9 Jan.. 1904 and, after serving for his first year with the Gordon Highlanders at Sialkot and Peshawar, was posted to the 34th Sikh Pioneers, 8 March 1905.
During the great earthquake in the Punjab in 1905 he was in charge of a relief convoy from Lahore to Kulu and did good work there, and his name appeared in a telegram from the Viceroy to the Secretary of State. He entered the Kusauli Army Signalling College, and on the completion of his course received a special certificate. He was engaged in the Mohmand Expedition of 1908, for which he received a medal with clasp. Seconded from his regiment in 1910 he was one of the first officers appointed to the newly raised Signal Companies of the Sappers and Miners and served with the 31st Signal Coy. as second in command for 3 years at Futtehghur and other stations. He was promoted Lieut. 9 April 1906 and Capt. 9 Jan 1913.
Home on furlough when the war broke out, he rejoined his regt. in Egypt in Aug 1914 and proceeded with it to France. He fell in action near Festubert, Flanders on 23 Nov 1914, while gallantly defending his trench against a determined assault of the enemy. Capt. Mackain, though wounded in the face from the splinter of a shell, rallied his men and while he lived kept the enemy at bay. He was mentioned in Field-Marshall Sir John French's Despatch of 14 Jan 1915. A brother officer wrote: "He was commanding his company (No. 4) at the time, and was shot through the head in a very gallant attempt to stem an attack in great force by the enemy through breaches blown in our trenches. The enemy were armed with hand-grenades, which they threw into the trenches. Your son, while shooting down the grenadiers with his revolver over the top of the trench, was unhappily himself shot dead through the head. His loss to us personally, and to us as a regt., I cannot yet realise. He was such a fine stamp of Christian soldier, and we looked on him as one likely to go a very long way." The "Civil and Military Gazette" of India, of 4 Dec 1914, said: "Capt. Mackain was known throughout Northern India as a keen Churchman and one of the mainstays of The Church of England Men's Society."
There is also an entry for James in the "Bond of Sacrifice: Officers Died in the Great War 1914-1916"
A memorial tablet to the memory of Capt. Mackain, erected by his father, was unveiled in the Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London W1 , by the Chaplain-General on 29 Sept. 1915, and another was placed in Lahore Cathedral by his friends in India."
Capt. James Fergus Mackain is remembered with honour at the GUARDS CEMETERY, WINDY CORNER, CUINCHY
