James Milligan was born 7th April 1882 in Melrose, Roxburgh the son of Lawrence Milligan a gardener on the Okendean Estate. In 1885 the family moved to Gullane and the first we hear of James being employed was as an apprentice carpenter with R & J Hay in Gullane. He moved to Markinch in Fife but, for what reason is as yet unclear however, it is known that in 1911 he travelled to New York on the S.S. California arriving on the 10th April. His contact in America was Edmund E Jones secretary of the Wyoming Valley Country Club at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and it is here he was offered the position of golf professional on the recomendation of none other than Ben Sayers the well known Scottish club maker. James became a talented player and competed successfully in a number of  American tournaments as well as the US Open at Brookline CC. He returned to Scotland to visit his mother livng in Main Street, Aberlady in 1913, 1914, and 1915. While back at his club in Pennsylvania the news reached James that one by one all of his three brothers who had joined The Colours had been killed so, he closed the door of his golf shop and headed back to Scotland to be with his mother who was sorrowing bravely. Wether or not he enlisted or was conscripted is not known but we do know is that he fought with the Highland Light Infantrey and fell in action on the 11th April 1917 during the Battle of Arras. His name is commemorated on the Arras memorial to the missing and the Gullane WWI memorial, beside the Auld Kirk graveyard, he was 33 years of age.

The Professional Golfers' Association