Trooper (Corporal?) James Alexander Rutherford

b. 28.11.1919

Parents - James and Janet Rutherford, St Boswells

Schools: St Boswells Primary and Kelso High

Occupation: Grocer

Enlisted: 01.09.1939

Regiment:  Initially 6th KOSB, branch RAC, and at time of death, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooter). 

Served: Middle East

Circumstances of death: captured at "Knightsbridge" in Western Desert, POW in Italy, where he died on 06.01.1943

Memorial: Ancona CWGC, on Adriatic coast of Italy, south of San Merino

 

It would appear that Trooper Rutherford was involved in one of the most vicious campaigns in the Middle East, when Rommel's German and Italian forces took on the 8th Army.  "Knightsbridge" was one of a line of defensive boxes along the "Gazala Line, which was being fiercely attacked by the Axis forces.  By mid-June Rommel's Panzer divisions were making real headway and surrounded "Knightsbridge, leading to it being abandoned.  On 13 June the area was taken over completely and many Allied troops were killed, injured, or captured.  His death in Italy and the location of his original burial in Fermo would indicate that he was a prisoner of war at Prigioniero di Guerra 70 at Monteurano near Fermo. He was re-interred at Ancona in January 1945.