James Samuel Emerson was born on 3 August 1895 to John and Ellen Emerson, and grew up in a farming family in Collon, in County Louth. He was baptised the following month, on 22 September in Collon parish church by Revd Robert Freeman. Early in World War I, Emerson had enlisted into the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, a reserve battalion in Dublin, before sailing to France with the British Expeditionary Force on 16 April 1915.
Baptism of James Samuel Emerson, Collon baptismal register, RCB Library P970.2.1.
Emerson rose quickly through the ranks, earning promotions to corporal before…
