James Greenlees - Scotland rugby player

robco · Dec 9, 2009

Any more about his DSO and general war service?

James Robert Campbell Greenlees (Scotland international rugby player)
Born: Glasgow 14 December 1878
Died: Edinburgh 16 May, 1951

Cambridge University Blue 1898-1901. Three victories and a draw from seven international appearances. Led Scotland to 1903 Triple Crown, Championship and Calcutta Cup glory in his final international against England at Richmond. Played club rugby for Kelvinside Academicals. Refereed I v E 1913 and E v W 1914. Was a doctor in Glasgow up until 1926 when he changed tack and became headmaster of Loretto School. He was in that post until 1945. President SRU 1913-14. Served WW1 as Lieut, R.A.M.C in France; 22nd Field Ambulance; Capt., 1915; 98th Field Ambulance; Lieut.-Col.; mentioned four times in despatches; D.S.O., 1915; bar, 1917; Chevalier, Legion of Honour,1918.

Dolphin · Dec 9, 2009

robco

Who's Who of International Rugby doesn't mention his war service, so I'd missed him.

His DSO citation, from the Gazette of 13 April 1915:

Lieutenant (temporary) James Robertson Campbell Greenlees, M.B., 22nd Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps.
For his great gallantry and devotion to duty at Neuve Chapelle, from 10th to 14th March, 1915, in attending on the wounded under very heavy fire. Lieutenant Greenlees has been twice previously brought to notice for similar acts of
gallantry.

There's no citation to the bar, Gazetted on 1 January 1918.

I'll now add him to my records.

Gareth

liverpool annie · Dec 9, 2009

With the outbreak of World War I, Greenlees joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to France. On 12 August 1915 he was promoted to temporary captain in the 22nd Field Ambulance; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order that same year. He was later posted to the 98th Field Ambulance, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1917 he was awarded a Bar to his DSO, and the next year he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Greenlees was Mentioned in Despatches on four occasions
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Greenlees, James Robertson Campbell.
Adm.
pens. at ST JOHN'S,
Sept. 21, 1898. [Younger] s.
of Matthew, manufacturer, of Glasgow [and Wilhelmina Alexander Campbell]. B.
Dec. 14, 1878, at
Partick. Schools, Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, and Loretto. Matric. Michs. 1898;
B.A. 1901; B.C.
1905; M.B. 1907; M.A. 1926. Football (rugby) 'blue,' 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901;
Capt., 1900. Scottish
Rugby Football International, 1900-3; Capt., 1903. Physician in Glasgow, 1906-
26. On the staff of
the Western Infirmary and Sick Children's Hospital, 1908-25. During the Great
War, 1914-19 (Lieut.,
R.A.M.C.; in France; 22nd Field Ambulance; Capt., 1915; 98th Field Ambulance;
Lieut.-Col.; mentioned
four times in despatches; D.S.O., 1915; bar, 1917; Chevalier, Legion of Honour,
1918). Head Master
of Loretto School, 1926-45. (Loretto Sch. Reg.; Schoolmasters' Directories;
Medical Directories;
Scottish Biographies; Kelly, Handbook, 1943; Who's Who.)

Dr J.R.C. Greenlees, 1926-1945

To fill the vacancy the Governors appointed James Robertson Campbell Greenlees, D.S.O., M.A., M.D., Ch.B., O.L., who had long been a member of the Board of Governors. Greenlees was practising as a physician in Glasgow and brought to his work as Headmaster a lifetime study of boys in the Boys' Brigade and a keen and knowledgeable interest in youth psychology.

Like his two predecessors he had a distinguished career at Rugby Football and, playing at forward, captained Cambridge against Oxford (led by his close friend and contemporary J.F.A. Swanston, O.L.), and played for Scotland for several years. He was decorated for his conduct in the field in the First World War.

This unconventional appointment early proved a success. Over the years numbers increased still further and the size of the waiting list presented a recurring problem. Headmaster and Governors had to balance the Head's desire to rule over a relatively small community where the influence of the Headmaster would make itself felt, at any rate throughout the Upper School, against the sheer economic necessity of making Loretto a viable proposition, with a. competent staff of masters, providing an education fully comparable to that given elsewhere. To this achievement Greenlees, like his predecessors, contributed in no small measure. Largely due to his generosity and insistence, the Sick House at Trafalgar Lodge was enlarged into an up-to-date sanatorium capable of accommodating, and isolating, boys with infectious diseases. During his time also the Colin Thomson Hall was built in the Park out of a bequest from the O.L. of that name, whose generosity it was that first enabled a Scholarship Fund to be founded for boys at School. The Dining Hall was panelled, mainly through the gift. of the then Chairman of Governors, C.J.G. Paterson, and the oak tables and benches presented by S.S. Lamert - only two of the many gifts Loretto owes to those two O.Ls.

A Vlth Form Library was contrived at the south end of Schoolhouse and a sitting-room built off the Yard. The School Library itself was enlarged by throwing in the Masters' Common Room, and the Masters were accommodated in a building off the Hundred. Eskbank House, neighbouring North Esk Lodge, was acquired to ease overcrowding in the Junior School, which had now grown considerably larger.

In 1939 Greenlees felt it was time to retire and make way for a younger man, but the outbreak of the Second World War appealed to him as a challenge and he continued in office for another six years. Loretto boys again responded to the call of their country in full measure, following their elder brothers of 1914-1918, but mercifully the casualty list, though grievous, was not so large as in the earlier war. Ninety gave their lives.

When in 1945 Greenlees retired he could look back on nineteen years during which his forceful personality and energy made a lasting impact on the generations of boys who came under his care.
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