James Salmond

James Bell Salmond (8 December 1891 – 2 February 1958), better known as J. B. Salmond, was a Scottish journalist, poet and novelist. During the First World War he wrote poetry and, with Wilfred Owen, was for a time joint editor of The Hydra, a journal published within Craiglockhart Military Hospital in Edinburgh. He was born in Arbroath, the son of James Boath Salmond, a non-fiction writer, novelist and editor of the Arbroath Herald. Salmond senior died in 1901, aged only 41. J. B. Salmond obtained a degree in Political Economy from the University of St Andrews in 1913. After working as a journalist with Northcliffe Press, he joined the Inns of Court Regiment, a territorial unit, at the beginning of the First World War, and was soon commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. Salmond wrote many poems about his war experiences, some in Scottish dialect, but is less well-known for his poetry than many of his contemporaries. During his time in the Black Watch, as a junior officer, he was involved in both the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Arras, following which, diagnosed with neurasthenia, he was consigned to Craiglockhart War Hospital. Salmond arrived at Craiglockhart on 25 June 1917, and Wilfred Owen on the following day.