James Herbert Crosland Herald was the son of Rev. W. D. Herald and his wife Florence, and was born about 1895 at the Manse, Duns, in Berwickshire. He matriculated at University College as an Arts (in litteris antiquis) student in Michaelmas term 1913, passing his first year exams at Easter 1914. Had his studies been uninterrupted it was his intention to follow his father and take Holy Orders, and so he probably would have remained at Durham to gain a Licentiate in Theology after his first degree. He was a considerable sportsman, playing cricket and football for his college. He also rowed, winning the Senate Cup in March 1914, and competed in June in the university’s 1st IV in the then annual boat race with Edinburgh on the Wear, a race won that year by the Edinburgh boat. He also joined the O.T.C., and was in the shooting team in June 1914. Herald joined up in the Michaelmas term of 1914, and was commissioned into the 2/8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry on 5 December 1914. He was promoted (temporary) lieutenant on 3 June 1915, and must then have transferred to the 1/8th battalion as he is recorded as joining the battalion at Armentières on 29 September 1915, just before the battalion went into the line in the Houplines sector. By January the battalion was occupying the Sanctuary Wood sector of the Ypres Salient, and Herald was acting as Intelligence Officer. This area was a waterlogged hell-hole reeking of unburied bodies, where sleep was impossible and the mud made any movement quickly exhausting. The only breaks in the monotony, described in the battalion history by Major Veitch, were the rat hunts conducted in intervals between shelling by one of James’ brother officers, Second Lieutenant A. M. Jones, and his fox terrier. The same history relates that on 23 January 1916 James was wounded by a sniper who enfiladed his position from the left. He died of his wounds at a dressing station at Vlamertinghe on that or the following day, the sources disagree. He was 21 years old and is buried at Vlamertinghe, probably near the site of the dressing station where he died. His family were then living at 3 Beresford Gardens, Trinity, in Edinburgh, and he left a widowed mother, a sister Agnes, and three brothers, Arthur, Sydney, and Vere, two of whom were serving as Gunners in 1916.