Military History

James is listed by the CWGC as having died on 18 Apr 1918, however this may well be the last day that he could have died with other records giving different dates. Unfortunately the war diary does not contain any casualty lists and is not helpful. He is listed as being killed in the daily casualty list of 5 Jun 1918.

• CWGC 18 Apr 1918
• Soldiers Who Died in the Great War 18 Apr 1918
• Pension Card 9 Apr 1918
• Register of effects btwn 9 Apr 1918 and 18 Apr 1918
• 1914-15 Star Medal Roll 9/18 Apr 1918

The war diary for the period 8 Apr 1918 to 18 Apr 1918 is transcribed below and we will leave it up to you readers to decide what day he was killed on, we suspect it was overnight on the 9th/10th. The 8th Battalion were part of 57th Brigade / 19th Division.

8/4/18 - Messines: Battlion in front line trenches in front of Messines

9/4/18 - Messines: Battlion in front line trenches in front of Messines

10/4/18 - Messines: 3.30am Enemy put up a very heavy barrage which lasted about 5 hours. Then followed by a very heavy attack which resulted in the battalion being out flanked and compelled to fall back to a line nearing Stinking Farm.

11/4/18 - Stinking Farm: The 19th Division counter-attacked with the 36th Division (Ulster) in support

12/4/18: - Units of the 57th Brigade were relieved and took up a position in the Army Line between Daylight Corner and Neuve-Eglise

13/4/18: - Battalion stayed in same position

14/4/18: - Battalion still in same position but were relieved about midnight and moved back to Rossignol Huts. Battalion near Siege Farm.

15/4/18: - Battalion remained at Rossignol Huts

16/4/18: - The battalion fell back to trenches near Beaver Corner in Reserve

17/4/18: - Remained in same position. Slight enemy shelling

18/4/18: - Orders were received from Brigade to commence withdrawal. The battalion came back to a field near Wippenhoek Siding about 2 miles E of Abeele. END