British Territorial Force Efficiency Medal (EVII) - Pioneer Sergeant James Dallas, 6th (Morayshire) Bn. Seaforth Highlanders T.F.
Territorial Force Efficiency Medal (EVII) - 49 PR SJT: J. DALLAS. 6/S'FTH HDRS
James Dallas, also recorded in local Moray sources as James “Simpson” Dallas, was born on 7 June 1879 at Auchtertyre, Elgin, the son of Alexander Dallas and Jessie Dallas (née Simpson). Census records show him growing up in the Elgin district and connected with the Simpson side of the family, which explains the local use of the by-name “Simpson.” As a boy he appears at Crofter of Auchtertyre in 1881, later at Spring Burn in 1891, and by 1901 was working as a ploughman, still in the Elgin area. Later in life he is recorded as a farmer, associated with Lochypots, Miltonduff and Springburn.
Dallas had a long and unusually valuable Territorial career. He first served with the 3rd Volunteer Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, beginning on 16 February 1897. When the old Volunteer Force was reorganised under the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, he passed into the new 6th Battalion (Morayshire), Seaforth Highlanders, Territorial Force, his service record noting the transition from the Volunteer era into the Territorial system. By this stage he was no inexperienced recruit but a seasoned Morayshire volunteer with many years already behind him.
His surviving service papers show steady progress through the ranks. He served first as a Private, was promoted to Lance-Corporal on 18 June 1906, then to Corporal on 1 April 1908, and finally to Pioneer-Sergeant on 1 April 1909. That rise is telling: pioneer sergeants were trusted senior N.C.O.s, often associated with practical field duties, engineering-type work, and the discipline and instruction of men within the battalion. Dallas was clearly regarded as a capable and experienced Territorial soldier.
He was also an accomplished marksman. A newspaper report of the Scottish Twenty Club Shooting Competition held at the Garmouth ranges records that Pioneer-Sergeant Dallas of Pluscarden won the gold cross, his two best scores aggregating 194, ahead of a strong field. The report places him among the leading riflemen in the district and shows him competing at a high level in a period when shooting proficiency was a serious military accomplishment within Volunteer and Territorial battalions.
His long and efficient service was recognised with the award of the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, a scarce and desirable distinction in any battalion, and particularly so to a senior N.C.O. of the 6th Seaforths. In Dallas’s case the award is especially notable because it bridges the old Volunteer Force and the early Territorial era, reflecting over a decade of committed part-time military service in Morayshire.
When war came in August 1914, Dallas was embodied with the battalion. His record shows him serving on home duty and later with the 2nd/6th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, the reserve and training battalion formed to supply drafts and maintain the Territorial structure while the 1st/6th served overseas. Given his rank, seniority, and long pre-war experience, he was very likely of particular value in the training and administration of younger soldiers, though the surviving record does not spell out his exact duties in detail.
His Territorial service came to an end on 31 March 1916, when he was discharged on the termination of his period of engagement under King’s Regulations. Unlike many younger men of the battalion, he does not appear to have gone overseas in the Great War, but his contribution should not be understated: he belonged to the generation of long-serving Volunteers and Territorials whose experience underpinned the expansion and training of the wartime battalions.
James Dallas died on 7 July 1966, aged 87, having lived a long life rooted in the Elgin district. His story is that of a genuine old Morayshire Territorial — farmer, prize shot, senior N.C.O., and one of the comparatively few men of the 6th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders to earn the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal.
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