James McNichol was born on 21st December 1884, in Greenock, Renfrewshire. His parents were James and Elizabeth McNichol, but there is little additional information about his early life.

On 22nd May 1908, James enlisted as a Seaman in the Royal Naval Reserve. Again, little information is available, although he appears to have spent most of his career based out of his home town or on the ship Spindrift, based out of Glasgow.

James’ service records do shed some light on him. His height was recorded as 5ft 4ins (1.63m), he had a fair complexion and blue eyes. He also had a tattoo of a tombstone on his right arm and the words True Love on his right.

James had married a woman called Elizabeth at some point, and, while the marriage documents are lost to time, she is noted as his next of kin on his naval death records.

By the summer of 1912, Seaman McNichol was assigned to the battleship HMS Bulwark. The ship patrolled the English Channel at the outbreak of war, but by that autumn of 1914, she had moved to North Kent, guarding the waters around the Isle of Sheppey against potential German invasion.

James was on board Bulwark on the morning of 26th November 1914, when an explosion ripped through the ship and sinking it. More than 740 lives were lost, Seaman McNichol among them. He was just 29 years of age.

James McNichol was laid to rest in a marked grave in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from a mass grave where scores of his colleagues had been buried.

---