icon
Bridge of Weir
Memorial

ww1 banner image

James Reynolds GDSM JAMES B.C. REYNOLDS DCM

24539305 Gdsm James Boyle Curran Reynolds DCM

2nd Battalion, Scots Guards

killed in action 14th June 1982
Mt Tumbledown, East Falkland

aged 19


Knadgerhill Cemetery, Irvine

Resident in Gryffe Children's Home, Bridge of Weir
from 1967 to 1981

His Life

James (Jim) was born on 18 February 1963 in Dennistoun, Glasgow. He didn’t have the best of starts in life and was taken into care at Gryffe Children’s Home, Bridge of Weir from the age of four. He is remembered as a cheerful lad with a good nature. He was educated locally at Bridge of Weir Primary School and Park Mains Secondary School, Erskine.

He had a sister, Eleanor, who was brought up by adoptive parents. Jim was an independent young man and joined the Scots Guards directly from Gryffe Children’s Home. When the Falklands War began, Jim was an orderly to Lieutenant Alastair Bruce in the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, when they were deployed to the theatre of war.

As the Scots Guards made an advance on Tumbledown on what was to be the final day of the Falklands War, what followed is fully described in the citation for Jim’s posthumous Distinguished Conduct Medal.

"On the night of 13th/14th June 1982, on the Island of East Falkland, the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards attacked well entrenched enemy positions on the craggy ridge feature of Tumbledown Mountain, seven kilometres to the west of Port Stanley. During the attack, Guardsman Reynold's Platoon came under fire from a group of enemy snipers. His Platoon Sergeant was killed instantly. A confused situation developed and his Section became separated. Guardsman Reynolds immediately took command. Having located the enemy snipers he silenced several of them himself. That done and showing a complete disregard for his own safety, he moved forward to render first aid to a wounded comrade. He himself was wounded in the hand by enemy sniper fire, but continued to aid his colleague. Whilst doing so, he was killed by enemy mortar fire."

Guardsman Reynolds’ body was repatriated and he is buried at Knadgerhill Cemetery, Irvine in a grave next to his fellow Guardsman David Malcolmson who was killed in the same battle. Jim had no other connections with Irvine, except vicariously through his colleague's friendship.

Jim and fellow servicemen killed in the Falklands are honoured by name in various places, many remote:

Jim has also had some unique tributes paid to him.
Alastair Bruce was owner of an estate in Sallochy, Lairg and built a cairn to honour his young orderly Jim. It was unveiled in 1984 by Jim’s sister Eleanor Gallacher. The inscription reads
"THIS CAIRN WAS ERECTED BY ALASTAIR BRUCE OF CRIONAICH IN MEMORY OF HIS LOYAL ORDERLY GDSM. J. B. C. REYNOLDS D.C.M. S.G. KILLED IN ACTION MT. TUMBLEDOWN FALKLAND ISLANDS JUNE 14 1982 WHILST ASSISTING A WOUNDED COMRADE".

The cairn stands five-foot-high and is the traditional memorial to Scottish men who have died in battle. Alastair read Psalm 27 the same psalm read by the Chaplain at the dedication of the Memorial at Tumbledown. As a salute RAF Lossiemouth arranged a fly-past by five Jaguar jets.

Alastair Bruce also arranged to have a commemorative plaque mounted in the Gryffe Children’s Home in 1983, but it was subsequently lost. The home had also displayed Jim’s uniform in a case provided by Alastair, until it closed. The building is now converted into residential flats, now “Gryffe Castle”.

Golspie High School raised funds to help re-stock the School in Stanley, Falkland Islands. A microscope presented to them was named ‘Guardsman Reynolds’ after Jim.

In 2022 as part of the Falkland Islands 40th Anniversary Place Names Project Jim was honoured with Reynolds Bay, a bay on the east coast of Great Island in Falkland Sound.

Three years after the conflict ended, Jim's ID Card was found lodged between some gorse and rocks by Captain David Dickinson ROAC. He kept it, meaning to return it to Guardsman Reynolds' unit after he returned to the UK. However, he misplaced it. Coincidentally with the year that Jim's name was added to Bridge of Weir War Memorial, Captain Dickinson (retired) came across the ID Card stuck between photographs he had taken on Mount Tumbledown. It has now joined Jim's medals, DCM citation and photograph at Regimental HQ, Wellington Barracks in London.

Sources

Back to post-1945

TO CITE THIS PAGE: MLA style: "Bridge of Weir Memorial". Date of viewing. http://www.bridgeofweirmemorial.co.uk/profile-reynolds.html