Graeme (as he preferred to be known) was the son of George Silas and Cecilia Anetta Jordan of Blackheath Rise, Lewisham and joined up in August 1914 as a Private in the 1st Battalion of the London Scottish. He served in France and was fatally wounded in the head aged 18 as part of what is said to be the first Territorial unit in action in the War at Messines Ridge on 31st October 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres. Graeme was taken prisoner and died at Aix-la-Chapelle on 20th November 1914. He was originally buried at the Military Cemetery there but later re-interred at Cologne Southern Cemetery (XII.A.7). Nearly half of the London Scottish involved at the action at Messines Ridge were killed, wounded or taken prisoner and such was the loss that the London Scottish decided to erect their Regimental Memorial there.
