James Lusk was the elder son of the late John Lusk, Dunavon,
Strathaven, Lanarkshire, his mother being a daughter of the late
David Colville, Motherwell. He was born at Broomhouse, Lanarkshire,
September 19th, 1878, and received his early education at Uddingston
School and the West of Scotland Technical College, Glasgow. He
entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1903, and took his degree
in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1905. He rowed in several Lady
Margaret Crews.
After taking his degree he returned to Scotland, and entered the Firm
of Messrs. David Colville and Sons, Ltd., of the Dalzell Steel Works,
Motherwell. At first he occupied the position of Assistant Works
Manager, and later became one of the Directors of the Firm. Those
associated with him in a business capacity have characterized him as
'an exceptionally able and clear-headed man of business.' In
collaboration with Professor Barr, he carried out an important and
valuable series of tests on High Tensile Steel in the Glasgow
University Engineering Laboratory. He designed a Slide Rule for the
calculation of weights and areas of steel, which is of great
assistance to those employed in Rolling Mills. In the designing of
new Plant his experience was of great benefit to the Firm. He was a
member of the Iron and Steel Institute, and an Associate member of
the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a member of the West of
Scotland Iron and Steel Institute, of which at one time he was a
Vice-President. His relations with the men at the Works were always
of the happiest, and one of his colleagues wrote to Mrs. Lusk on the
night when the news of his death reached home,--'There will be many
sad hearts in the Works tomorrow.'
James Lusk was not a man who liked publicity in any form, nor yet one
who cared to talk much of the deepest things. But after his Father's
death in 1913, he loyally tried to carry on the tradition of service
which was handed down to him. The Council of the Lanarkshire
Christian Union passed the following minute in February, 1916:--'We
desire to minute our great sense of loss which we have sustained in
the death of our esteemed member of Council, Captain James Lusk. He
was a man of the utmost integrity, who at all times exhibited a true
Christian character. His was a life not of words but of deeds, and
he made the great sacrifice on the field of battle in the performance
of his duty. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends."'
In the Obituary columns of the _Temperance Leader_ of January 15th,
1916, it is noted that 'Captain Lusk .... has been a life-long
abstainer, and a member of the Scottish Temperance League since his
boyhood.... In the case of Captain Lusk and that of other brave lads
who have fallen in this cruel war, it has been clearly demonstrated
that a man may be a brave soldier and an efficient leader on the
battle-field without the taint of alcohol.'
James Lusk probably felt that the young men and boys of the great
busy town of Motherwell had a special claim upon his time and
thoughts. He was President of their Dalzell Highland Pipe Band, and
also a Director of the Junior section of the Motherwell Young Men's
Christian Association. What his fellow-workers thought of him must
be told in the words of a fine 'Appreciation,' contributed by one of
them to their _Young Men's Magazine_, January, 1916:--
'Some years ago, when we had erected our suite of rooms for the
working youths of the town, and had chosen about a dozen of these
youths to act as Directors of this Junior Section along with several
of our Senior Members, we looked around for two or three gentlemen
who could be invited to join this newly-constituted Board, and who
would bring distinction and character and personality with them into
the midst of these working lads.
'Greatly daring, having heard of his interest in such work, we asked
Mr. James Lusk, B.A., Cantab., to come and help us. He readily
consented, and to all our subsequent meetings he brought in rich
abundance the qualities and influence we so much desired. Our
members came at once in contact with a very perfect Christian
gentleman. His gentlemanliness, his courtesy, his kindliness, and a
certain air of courtliness with which he surrounded himself as with
an atmosphere, all exerted a pervading influence on the lads in the
section.
'There always are and always will be certain qualities, as Arnold of
Rugby told us long ago, to which we must ultimately stand cap in
hand; and to the fine distinctive character of James Lusk our members
rendered instant homage. His personality, as we have said, had its
influence. The football-loving Juniors who thronged our rooms grew
up, and many of them migrated elsewhere, where the conditions under
which they played their game were not so wholesome as in the
Institute of the Motherwell Y.M.C.A. It is within the writer's
knowledge that many of these young fellows found it very much easier
to resist the temptations to which they were subjected, just because
at an earlier period they had been permitted to associate to some
extent with such a man as James Lusk....
It was no surprise to us at the Young Men's Institute to learn in
these latter days that the men of his Regiment paid homage to his
virtues and character, as our juniors had done; neither was it any
surprise to us to learn that he resigned his position on the Staff to
go with his own men. That was just _his_ way.....
'There were other characteristics of his which left their imprint on
some of us who were associated with him in the Y.M.C.A. Young Men's
Institute. One of these was his enthusiasm. His enthusiasm was one
of the earnest enduring kind that had been nourished down in these
depths where visions and passions dwell, and out of which truth and
beauty come because of the ever-growing and ever-deepening knowledge
of life. We believe it was out of the wells that he had dug deep in
his own heart, that there sprang that eager desire to help these lads
with their football clubs, their gymnastics, their orchestras, their
book-club, their holiday-fund and their Bible and Mission Study
Circles, for he was quick to realize that all these things helped to
the making of manly men.
'Another truth his association with us constantly reminded us of was
the fact that it is as a rule the best disciplined, the best tutored
and the best educated minds that achieve the finest results. He was
a clear and incisive thinker, and when his problems had passed
through that acute mind of his, they were quickly assorted out into
their elemental and component parts.....
'Many words will not enable us to put on record our deep abiding
respect and our great admiration of the quiet, modest, lovable
disposition of Captain James Lusk, of the very great abilities he
possessed, and of the strong, brave, bold, fearless soul that
dominated and shone through it all, and made him eager to serve alike
his Go, his King and his Country. It will always be one of our
safely-guarded and treasured memories that we had the honour of
associating with him, for he was one of the very finest types of an
Officer and a gentleman that ever we have known.'
Captain Lusk took a Commission in the 6th Battalion The Cameronians
(Scottish Rifles), T.F., in November, 1908, and was gazetted
Lieutenant, July 31st, 1910. The Cameronians are the successors of
the fighting Covenanters, and the 6th Battalion are men of the
district in which Captain Lusk's home had been, the districts of
Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge,--names which arouse grim memories of
valour in every Scotsman. From the first he took a keen interest in
the efficiency of the Regiment, and gave of his best to its service.
One never thought of James as a soldier in those old days, though no
doubt some aspects of the work always appealed to him. But the
strength of his character as an Officer, then and later, was not in
any love of fighting, but in a strenuous self-forgetfulness and a
keen desire to do well the thing that was wanted.
He was in Camp with the Battalion at Ayr at the end of July, 1914,
when the thunder-clouds of the impending storm of the European War
began to gather black and lowering. From the date of mobilization,
the narrative of Captain Lusk's life may be followed in his own
letters, which form the groundwork of the present volume.
To James Lusk, as to many another, the great call for service and
sacrifice seemed to be just what he had been waiting for. It gave
him his opportunity for the exercise of a devotion and a heroism
which those who knew him best had hardly dreamed that he possessed.
One nearly related to James has succeeded with remarkable felicity in
putting into words what we had been vaguely feeling. We quote at
length from his letter to Mrs. Lusk after her son's death:--
'It was a great privilege and a sad pleasure to read those precious
letters about James, which you kindly sent. I wish to let you know
what impression they made on me, for they have set me a-thinking
about him and his life, now that it is ended here, so greatly to our
grief.
'I confess that these letters were a revelation to me. I thought
that I knew James pretty well, but these letters from entire
strangers up till a short time ago to him and to us, all revealed
more to me about him than I was prepared for. James, as we all could
see, was reticent on the higher things of heart and life, as many
Scotch people, myself included, are; and his little hesitation in
utterance doubtless made him more so than he naturally was. I once,
as I thought, had a glimpse of his inner nature. It was when I met
him first at Dunavon after his father had passed away. He and I
happened to be coming together round the house at night from the
back. He, with his usual consideration and helpfulness, took the old
man's arm to guide me along the paths. We naturally fell into an
intimate talk, the darkness perhaps helping us both. I spoke to him
about his father's eminent goodness, and of the precious example left
by his life to all of us. He responded with hearty appreciation,
which seemed at the time to give me a peep into him, which was
pleasing, if not unexpected. Probably other friends of James had
similar experiences at times. But these letter-writers appear to
have seen quite clearly what others saw but dimly. They made
acquaintance with him at the great period of his life, and in
circumstances fitted to brush aside all formality and
conventionality. It was the War that did it. The War, with its
reality and sternness, has evidently been both developing and
revealing the badness of some persons and nations, and the goodness
of others; and it seems to have developed as well as revealed the
strength and the beauty of James' character. It seems to me as if we
saw the tender buds peeping at times timidly out of the ground, while
these strangers saw the flowers in full bloom and sweetness. The
charm of what they saw won the respect, the admiration and the love
of both his inferiors and superiors. And how glad they evidently
were to tell, in sincerity, not in flattery, what they had seen, to
you, to whom what they wrote was sure to be more than it could be to
any other person in the world! They wanted to tell his mother what
an impression her son's gallantly and high-toned character had made
upon them who saw him at his best. They have helped us to know James
better than perhaps any of us, even you, knew him before; and that
new knowledge is well fitted to raise him high in our loving memory.
Had it not been for the War, his good qualities would have been shown
by degrees in other ways. Had he lived long, as we all hoped that he
would, his life would have been doubtless a prosperous, honourable
business life, a life of strict integrity and much usefulness, in
which he would have been an influence for good among his workmen and
others. But God ordered things otherwise. A great crisis in the
country's history, the greatest indeed in the world's history,
occurred, and the call came for defenders of Right against Might, of
high ideals and liberties, and James was ready and obeyed the call of
duty, not counting even his life dear to him, and that supreme
sacrifice in the great cause was required of him.'
A few of the letters referred to are inserted among Captain Lusk's
own at the points to which they relate; a larger number will be found
at the end of the book. It remains to gather together here some
stray leaves which are too precious to be lost, from the wealth of
appreciation which was showered upon his Mother after his passing.