James Byres

Bank: Commercial Bank of Scotland

Place of work: Edinburgh Nicolson Street branch

Died: 27 August 1917

James Hope Byres was born in 1891, the second son of George Byres, an accountant's clerk, and his wife Elizabeth. He was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and in September 1910 went to work for Commercial Bank of Scotland. He was appointed apprentice at the bank's Edinburgh Nicolson Street branch in October 1912.

Byres was a territorial soldier, having joined the Bankers' Company of the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) in 1911. On the outbreak of the First World War he was mobilised, and between 1915 and 1917 served in Gallipoli and Egypt. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in June 1917, and was soon afterwards posted to Belgium. He was killed by a sniper on 27 August 1917, the day after he reached his regiment there. He was 26 years old.

James Byres is commemorated on a bank war memorial at 36 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh.