First World War Medals – Piper Adam Ion, Scots Guards, K.I.A. 1917
British War Medal – 10529 PTE. A. ION. S. GDS.
Victory Medal – 10529 PTE. A. ION. S. GDS.
Adam Ion was born on 6th April 1882 at Kirroughtree, Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, the son of Thomas Parr Ion, a labourer, and his wife Jessie McGowan. He was brought up in rural Kirkcudbrightshire and is recorded in the 1891 census living with his parents in Minnigaff, and again in 1901, by which time he was living away from home as a boarder. As a young man he entered public service, joining the Wigtownshire Constabulary on 31st March 1909, and served as a police constable at Stranraer and later at Cairnryan, where he was stationed at the Police Station.
Prior to the First World War Adam Ion had already seen military service with the Scots Guards, during which period he qualified and served as a piper. His association with the regimental pipes is well established, and a number of excellent studio and service photographs of him in Scots Guards uniform survive and are accessible online, showing him clearly identified as a Guardsman and piper. This pre-war soldiering formed an important part of his life, and his experience in the regiment pre-dated the outbreak of hostilities in 1914.
On 11th April 1911 he married Agnes Hume at Stranraer, and the couple later had children. At the outbreak of the Great War he was still serving as a police constable, but he returned to the colours and rejoined his old regiment, being posted to the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, retaining his role as a piper. He served with the battalion in France and Flanders, where pipers were employed both in their traditional role and as infantry soldiers, often exposed to the same dangers as the men they accompanied.
In October 1917 the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards were heavily engaged during the later stages of the Third Battle of Ypres, in the fighting associated with Passchendaele. Conditions were among the worst of the war, with deep mud, relentless shellfire, and determined enemy resistance. During these operations, Private Adam Ion, service number 10529, was killed in action on 9th October 1917, aged 36.
He is buried at Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boesinghe, Belgium, Plot V.D.19, where his headstone bears the personal inscription chosen by his family:
“SLEEP ON BELOV’D FOR GOD KNOWS BEST YOU HAVE WON A SOLDIER’S REST.”
His Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry records him as the son of Thomas Parr Ion and Jessie McGowan Ion, of Stronord, Palnure, Newton Stewart, and the husband of Agnes Ion, of The Police Station, Cairnryan, Stranraer, Wigtownshire. His British War Medal and Victory Medal were later issued to his widow, forming a poignant pair to a pre-war Scots Guards piper whose military service spanned both peace and war.
Fantastic photographs of Piper Ion are available to view online.
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