Mason, John Hampton Strachan
Rank: Private
Regiment: 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders
Biography: Son of John Mason, painter. Born Aberdeen, 17 December 1891; educated Robert Gordon's College; entered the University in 1909; graduated M.A. (Hons. Eng.), 1913, and in the same year secured an important literary appointment in London. As an undergraduate he took a leading part in the life of the University, being editor of "Alma Mater" (1911-12), and later president of the Literary Society. Mason was among the first volunteers for active service, and was a Private in "D" Company, 4th Gordons. After training in England he crossed to France with the 1/4th Gordon Highlanders in 1915, and was killed in action 25 September 1915, in one of those "breathless episodes" in the fierce fighting near Loos. Jack Mason was a man with many accomplishments, of wide and varied interests, and of cultivated and fastidious tastes. He possessed a freshness of thought and a rare originality of mind, although a certain lighthearted extravagance and exuberance of speech often concealed a coolness and soundness of judgment and a strength of character which his seniors envied. But he will be remembered by most for his charm of manner, his unfailing gift of humour and his ready sympathy with all classes of men, which attracted and kept together round him a wide circle of friends of the most divergent interests.
Date of Death: 25 September 1915
Burial Details: Name recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Panel 38, Column 8.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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