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Pte. James McGregor Ballantine
British Army 5th Btn. Black Watch
from:Newtyle
My grandfather, James McGregor Ballantine was born in Newtyle north of Dundee in 1896.
He enlisted with the Black Watch Territorials on February 21st 1913. He was on summer camp with them when war broke out and saw service on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, and served with the colours between August 5th 1914 and April 12th 1919. He was finally demobbed on March 31st 1920.
After a few years back in Scotland he went out to India as a manager on the Naihati jute mill north of Calcutta. He married there and returned to Scotland in about 1936. He then took his family, my grandmother, father and aunt out to South Africa in 1838. During the Second World War, he worked at the Kilpfontoen Organic Products, which was secretly producing mustard gas. He died of lung cancer at the age of 51 in October 1947.
