Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1895-1902, 3 clasps, Relief of Chitral 1895, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (3751 Pte. J. McAdams 2nd. Bn. K.O. Sco: Bord:) unofficial affixing between first and second clasps as issued, minor edge bruising, good very fine £160-200

James McAdams was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, in 1872 and attested for the King’s Own Scottish Borderers at Paisley on 5 August 1891. He served with the 2nd Battalion in India from January 1893, and took part in the Relief of Chitral as part of Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Low’s Force, March to August 1895, as well as operations on the Punjab Frontier with the Mohmand Field Force under Major-General E. R. Elles, and with the Tirah Field Force, under Lieutenant-General Sir W. S. A. Lockhart, June 1897 until April 1898. After returning home in February 1899, he transferred to the Army Reserve, 17 February 1899, but was recalled to the Colours on 7 October 1899, on the outbreak of the Boer War, and was posted to the 1st Battalion. He served with them in South Africa from 4 January 1900 (entitled to Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Paardeberg, Johannesburg, and South Africa 1901), before returning home in November 1901, and once again transferring to the Reserve. He was finally discharged on 4 August 1907, after 16 years’ service. On the outbreak of the Great War McAdams re-attested for the King’s Own Scottish Borderers at Berwick-upon-Tweed, 6 September 1914, and was posted to the 1st Garrison Battalion. Transferring to the Royal Scots Fusiliers 12 October 1915, he served with them during the Great War in India (entitled to British War Medal only) before returning home and being posted to the Highland Light Infantry. At the end of the Great War he joined the Royal Defence Corps, and went with them to France on 31 July 1919, finally being discharged on 27 February 1920.