348028 Pte Stephen Lawson

Royal Scots

Pte Stephen Lawson was born a farmer's son at Fourlands Hill, near High Bentham, in the Yorkshire Dales.

In 1891 there was a Stephen Lawson living at Fourlands aged 3. He would have been born in late 1887 or early 1888. His father is recorded as James Lawson; his mother is not listed so presumably she died since his birth. On the previous census, 1881, James is recorded as married to Isabella so presumably she will have been Stephen's mother. Also in the household are William and Mary Pooley, James Lawson's father and mother-in-law. So Isabella's maiden name was Pooley. In 1891 there were 5 brothers and one sister with Stephen. It looks as though James Lawson remarried as the 1901 census records Barbara as his wife. James' occupation on all 3 census records is "farmer". "Farmer of 52 acres", is shown on the 1881 census. The 1881 census gives the address as Fourlands Hill. On the 1891 census it is Fourlands and by 1901 it is Far Fourlands, a smaller farm nearby. Stephen is described as a farmer's son on the 1901 census.

 By the time the war came Stephen was living in Lancaster . He enlisted at Settle and joined the 5th/6th Bn the Royal Scots. The Royal Scots raised 35 Bns during WW1 of which 15 saw active service. (The 5/6th Bn was formed in July 1916 from the depleted 1/5th and 1/6th Territorial Bns eventually being disbanded in 1919.)

The former Fourlands Inn today. Fourlands Hill and Far Fourlands farms are a few yards down the road to the left. © Copyright SIMON PHILLIPS

Stephen's medal roll entry shows that he was entitled to both the VM and BWM but not the earlier star, indicating that he entered a theatre of war after 31 dec 1915

Stephen was killed on the 11th of August 1918 near Bouchoir during heavy fighting during which the 8th Canadian Infantry Bde re-took the village on the 9th, two days before his death.

On the morning of the 11th of August the 5/6th Bn Royal Scots with the 2nd Bn Dorset Regt took part in an attack on the village of Damery, just beyond the old front line of 1916. They left the old British trenches and crossed the wilderness of a  shell pocked no mans land now swathed in weeds, and penetrated the old German trench line before the attack was halted by well sited German machine guns in the woods and villages beyond.

Stephen is buried in the Bouchoir New British Cemetery along with 763 other British dead, nearly all killed either in the last great German advance of Spring 1918 or during their subsequent retreat in August. There are 95 named Royal Scots dead buried here, all killed on the 11th of August, the last day of what would be known as the Battle of Amiens. His name is recorded on the WW1 Memorial Plaque on the Town Hall of High Bentham

 Stephen Lawson's memorial plaque

Stephen's plaque is one of approximately 1,150,000  sent to the families of soldiers and sailors from Britain and the Empire who died in the war,or afterwards from its effects, or of natural causes between 4 Aug 1914 and 30 April 1920. It is a cast bronze disk 4.75" in diameter and his name is shown without rank or title, to show the equality of all in death. The design shows Brittania, holding a victor's laurels, with the British Lion. The plaque was designed by Edward Carter-Preston, whose intitials can be seen just above the lion's front paw. The plaque would have been accompanied by a scroll headed by the Royal coat of arms which read:

"He whom this scroll commemorates was numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after see to it that his name is not forgotten"

In Memory of
Private S LAWSON

348028, 5th/6th Bn., Royal Scots
who died
on 11 August 1918

Remembered with honour
BOUCHOIR NEW BRITISH CEMETERY

Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission