James was born in Dundee in 1918, the first child of Frederick Gow and Mary (nee Cox). His mother died suddenly when he was only 15, after which he and his younger brother Jack were cared for by his paternal Aunt.

James ran away from home to join the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots in Dundee on the 2nd January, 1935. As he was only 16 at the time, he lied about his age, saying he was actually 18. Prior to this, he had worked in one of Dundee's many jute mills, like his mother.

James started as a private, but was a sergeant when he left on the 1st January 1957, after 22 years with the colours. After initial training, he was sent to India in March 1936, and then in January 1938, to Hong Kong. He was stationed in Hong Kong as a signaller with 2nd Batallion Royal Scots when war with Germany was declared, and subsequently fought in the horrific Battle of Hong Kong, culminating in the surrender of the colony on Christmas Day (Black Christmas), 1941.

Consequently, he was a Far-East Prisoner of War (FEPOW) for most of the war. He was captured on 18th December 1941, at Wan Chai Gap, and first held in Sham Shui Po prison camp in Hong Kong, from late December 1941, until September 1942. Along with around 1800 other prisoners, he was being sent to Japan on the unmarked freighter "Lisbon Maru", when it was torpedoed en route and sank.

He never talked to us much about his experiences, though told his wife a few things, such as clinging to driftwood after the Lisbon Maru sank, the humiliating march through the streets of Kobe when they arrived there, being beaten with a sword for concealing a tin of olive oil, and how during one of his repatriation flights the bomb bay doors suddenly opened and some ex-prisoners fell out to their death.

James also told his elder son about the Japanese Officer in the Battle of Hong Kong who was wounded and carried into the temporary hospital at St Albert's Convent – he clearly remembered the sound of the Officer's sword scraping along the ground as he was carried in. Although the Officer died, a nurse covered the body with a Japanese flag, and he believed that the respect shown saved their lives when the Imperial Japanese Army took the hospital. He served with the Ford brothers, Douglas and Jim, Douglas was his platoon commander for a time.

After liberation, James was transferred to the Philippines, then on the USS Joseph T Dickman to San Francisco, next to Halifax, Canada, and finally arrived back in the UK on the Queen Elizabeth at Southampton on 5th November, 1945. After the war finished, James was transferred to GCU48 (Graves Concentration Unit 48) in North West France, who retrieved the bodies of the fallen from both sides for re-interment in Bayeux War Cemetry.

Following this, he was moved to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and it was at that point in 1949 he met his future wife at the Kirtlebridge sub-depot of Longtown, where she was manageress of the NAAFI. After postings in Lagos, Nigeria, James left the army after 22 years on the 1st January, 1957, and moved in with his wife and daughter Mary to the family smallholding at Kirtlebridge. He got a job at the new Chapelcross Nuclear power station which was nearby, as a process worker, and remained there until retiring from ill-health in the early 1980s.

He kept in touch with a few ex 2nd Battalion Royal Scots FEPOWs, and a few FEPOWS from Changi also stayed locally. He had regular nightmares until he died, of being chased for his life by Japanese soldiers. He did write some poetry shortly after liberation, and one about the Lisbon Maru has been published in the COFEPOW Book "Poems of Hope – Volume I" to mark the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day.