Private James Roy
202382, 5th/6th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
James Roy was born in 1889 in South Leith, Edinburgh to George and Jane Roy, the eldest of four sons. By 1911 at the age of twenty-two he was working as a railwayman, while playing half-back for amateur side Broxburn United, where he came to the attention of Everton. Signed in December 1913, his first season was in the reserves where he earned a Central League championship medal, but his wait for a first team chance continued into the 1914-15 season, and was he unable to break into what became the First Division championship side.
It is likely he had enlisted by the end of 1915, and following a few months of training he was in France by late summer 1916. By April 1917 he was with the Scottish Rifles in their action in the Battle of Arras. He died of wounds in the Hindenburg line near Fontaine-lès-Croisilles on 24 April 1917 and he is remembered on The Arras Memorial to the Missing at Faubourg D‘Amiens, France. Tragically his brother was also killed near Arras in March 1918 and is on the same memorial.