Roll of Honour
2nd Lieutenant
James Ritchie Wells
Alumnus
James Ritchie Wells was born in 1890 in Glasgow, son of Robert Lamb Wells and Catherine Hamilton Wells of 37 Bentinck Street, in Glasgow. By the time of the 1901 census, his mother had died, and his father remarried Jessie Chisholm Wells.
In 1903 he was enrolled in Allan Glens School in Glasgow, and obtained qualifications that enabled him to matriculate at the University in the Law Faculty. He attended classes and in 1909 was studying Scots Law, but by 1910, although still matriculating, he was working as a law Clerk in Edinburgh. In the year 1910, he is studying Mercantile Law, in 1911, Conveyancing, and in 1912 Mercantile Law.
He did not graduate, and by the time of his death was living at 2 Craigcrook Place in Blackhall near Edinburgh. His father had died, and he was living there with his Step-mother and attending Davidsons Mains Church.
He joined the 1st Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in April 1916.
He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, and was training at Scampton Airfield in Lincolnshire when he was killed in an accident, on 17th November 1917. He was 27 years old.
Whether with prescience or not, he had made a will just 4 days before this, on 13th November 1917.
He is buried in Lambhill Cemetery in Glasgow. In addition to the University Roll of honour, he is remembered on the Allan Glens School Memorial and the Davidsons Mains Church Memorial, which, unusually, is incorporated in the communion table.
Comments and Citations
University of Glasgow Registry Records