James Syme Drew was born in Manchester on 1 Sep 1883, the son of Thomas Auchterlonie Drew of Fallowfield. His mother was Elizabeth Beatrice Jane Syme. He was educated at Harrow and entered Sandhurst in 1901. He was commissioned into the 2nd Bn The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders on 17 Jan 1902. He served in various parts of the Mediterranean, and then South Africa in 1905. The battalion was posted to Tientsin in China in 1908 and in 1910 moved to India until 1914.
With the rank of captain he was appointed Adjutant of the 5th Battalion in Sep 1914. They fought at Loos where the battalion were subjected to enfiladed machine-gun fire so that there were few survivors. On 25 Sep 1915 Drew was one of three officers to have survived the enemy bullets, and earned the MC. He was involved in most of the major battles on the Western Front. In 1917 he was a staff officer with the rank of major. For his distinguished service at Passchendaele in the autumn of 1917 he was awarded the DSO. In March 1918 he was chief instructor at the Senior Officers’ School, Aldershot., but returned to France serving with the 63rd (RN) Division, advancing into Belgium. In Nov 1918 he was with the 29th Division, occupying the Rhineland.
After the war he was in Ireland in 1920 and then posted to the Staff College at Camberley. In 1927 he was a full Colonel. In 1929 he was at the Small Arms School, Netheravon, and in 1932 appointed Brigadier General Staff, Southern Command. In March 1938, now a major-general, he was Commander of the 52nd (Lowland) Division in Scottish Command and awarded the CB in December 1938.
The 52nd Division was briefly sent to France as part of 2BEF after Dunkirk, but returned to defend the UK against invasion. In Nov 1942 Drew was appointed to Combined Operations and knighted in Feb 1944 (KBE). In June 1944 he was Director-General of the Home Guard and the TA. After the war he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Perthshire and chairman of the British Royal Legion. He died at his home, Balavoulin near Blair Atholl, on 27 June 1955.
He was appointed Colonel of The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders from 9 October 1943 to 1 September 1951. He was married in 1918 to Victoria Maxwell of Munches. They had a son and three daughters. An obituary mentioned his lack of opportunity to command fighting troops in WW2:
‘To a man so able, and so quietly sure of himself, a man who many considered was the soundest tactical instructor of his time at the Staff College, this may well have been a disappointment. If General Drew ever considered the matter, he showed no sign, and he did his duty to the uttermost, working hard at the various important tasks assigned to him at H.Q. Combined Operations and as Director-General of the Territorial Army. He lived all his soldiering days in the belief that what mattered was the good of the Army, and above all, the good of his own regiment.’
