On the 23rd October 1914, The Haddingtonshire Advertiser announced that Prestonpans widow Mrs Mary Nisbet, residing in Front Street, Cuthill, Prestonpans, East Lothian, currently had “five sons and a son-in-law under the colours” a shining example of patriotism of which she was “justly proud.” James Nisbet was born in Broxburn, West Lothian, but was living in Front Street Cuthill, Prestonpans , East Lothian, working as an insurance agent, when he enlisted in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers early in the war. 

His war record doesn’t survive, but he appeared in the pages of the local newspapers multiple times as the news of his woundings in action made it home.

In May 1915, it was reported that he had been wounded in action at the famous battle, to capture and hold Hill 60, during the Second Battle of Ypres. The Haddingtonshire Advertiser also announced he was again wounded in their 13th July 1917 issue and then again, this time for an apparent fourth time, in their 20th July issue. On the 21st June 1918, they reported his fifth wounding in action, stating that he had this time “been badly gassed” and was “in hospital in France.”

Then, on the 25th October 1918, the same newspaper solemnly reported: "Official intimation has come that Pte. James Nisbet, K.O.S.B., has been killed in action. He was one of five soldier sons of Mrs Nisbet, Front Street Cuthill. Two brothers have also made the supreme sacrifice, while two continue on service." It is not yet clear why the newspaper reported James as the third Nisbet brother to die, as Mary Nisbet’s third son lost to the war, Robert Heatlie Nisbet, actually died the following year in circumstances related to injuries he’d received in action early in the conflict.

James was killed in action on the 30th September 1918, and in the absence of his military file we must look to his battalion war diary for an account of how he lost his life. Unfortunately, the 6th Battalion K.O.S.B. diarist at the time of his death was a man of few words and his descriptions of daily events are extremely brief and of limited detail! He notes that the battalion spent part of September month billeted near the Belgian town of Poperinge, engaged in training exercises and enjoying a period of rest after a long spell of fighting. On the 28th September, after noting they spent the previous day “getting battle stores ready,” the diarist briefly records their activities as: "Battn moved up by train near YPRES to take part in battle. Very bad morning – everyone absolutely soaked. At end of day Battn was near POLYGONE BUTT. Next day Division with Bde still in reserve pushed on. Advance proving sticky, C.O. pushed on. C & D Coys to hustle matters, these 2 Coys got the line going & cleared DADIZEELE. On account of the failure of the right to keep pace with our advance there was no advance on 30/9/18 wh[ich] was a very wet day." This particular battalion diarist fails to record neither the details nor the total number of daily casualties during his entries.

As a consequence, we cannot state with absolute certainty, how exactly this second son of a grieving Prestonpans mother was lost amid the increasing violence in the closing weeks of the war. It may be that James was killed while taking the little Belgian village of Dadizeele in West Vlaanderen, after it had spent almost the entire war in German hands, or perhaps he died while holding the village until the rest of the British army finally caught up with him and his battle-scarred veterans of ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies of the 6th Battalion Kings Own Scottish Borderers. 

James Nisbet was buried in the Dadizeele New British Cemetery, in area VI, row C plot 24. His mother Mary asked the Imperial War Commission that the headstone over the small patch of Flanders fields where her son will forever lie should have inscribed near the bottom: 'Mother’s loss, Heaven’s gain'