Born Port Glasgow, resided Sheffield, enlisted Manchester.

On the 1st July, the 15th Bn attacked from a forward trench line running NW to SE, south of La Boiselle down to Becourt Wood.  Their objective was four German trench lines in front of Contalmaison.    After the Lochnagarr and the La Boiselle mines were blown, they went over the top to be met by murderous German machine gun fire.    Although the Germans had been subjected to an enormous barrage of shell fire for a week previous, they were all well hidden deep underground and simply surfaced when the barrage ended to man the machine guns.