JAMES, EDWARD WILLIAM ('Eddie' or 'Ted')

 

 

Source

CWGC

SDGW

Uttoxeter Advertiser

Other

Parents

Edwin and Ada James

Yes

 

4f

 

Where born

Horninglow, Staffordshire

 

Yes

 

9

When born

 

 

 

 

 

Address

Parents: 5, Balance Hill, Uttoxeter

Yes

 

4d, 4e

9

Parents: Balance Hill, Uttoxeter

 

 

4b

 

Spouse

No

 

 

 

1

Children

No

 

 

 

1

Employment Before Joining up

Employed by Mr. Horace Critchlow - fellmongers (people who prepared and dealt in animal skins)

 

 

4e

 

When enlisted

6th August 1914.

 

 

 

9

Where enlisted

Uttoxeter

 

Yes

 

9

Regiment

North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’s)

Yes

Yes

4d, 4e

7, 9

Unit when first enlisted

6th Bn.

 

 

4g

 

Unit at the time of his death

2nd/5th Bn.

Yes

Yes

 

 

2nd /5th (T.F. Bn)

 

 

 

9

5th

 

 

4d

12

North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’s)

Yes

Yes

4d, 4g, 4h

12

Rank

Corporal

Yes

 

 

 

Private

 

 

 

7 (wasn’t updated when he was promoted)

First Class Signaller

 

 

4g

 

Signaller

 

 

4a, 4e

 

Lance Corporal

 

Yes

4b, 4c, 4d, 4f, 4h

2, 9, 12

Service Number

203021

Yes

Yes

 

2, 7, 9

Date of Death

Went missing between March 21 and April 3 1918

 

 

4e

2

Went missing on 21st March 1918

 

 

4b, 4c, 4d

 

21st March 1918

 

 

4f

 

3 April 1918

Yes

Yes

 

9

Age at time of death

28

Yes

 

4e

2

Where Killed or died

Near Bullecourt, Pas de Calais – 1918

 

 

4e

 

Bullecourt

 

 

4f

 

How he died

Killed in Action

 

 

 

 

Location of Grave or Memorial

Croisilles British Cemetery - Grave VI.E.2

Yes

 

 

 

Awards

Victory Medal

 

 

 

7

British Medal

 

 

 

7

15 Star

 

 

 

7

 

His correct name was Edward, but the war memorial has him down as Edwin, which was his father's name. His father also served in the war, as did his 3 brothers.

Edward James was the authors’ Great Uncle.

Before the war he was employed by Mr. Horace Critchlow. According to the Uttoxeter Directories for 1912, the Critchlow Brothers were situated in Pinfold Street and were fellmongers (people who prepared and dealt in animal skins).

Edward left Uttoxeter on the 6th August 1914. He went with the first contingent of the Uttoxeter Company, 1st/6th Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment. [9]

The letter that follows is not dated, but its content suggests that he wrote it at the outbreak of war:

Pte E W James

6th Batt. The Prince of Wales’s (North Staffs.) Regiment

St ASAPH,

N. WALES

G Co[mpany]

Dear Mother & Father,

Just a line to let you know we arrived safe here at 11:45 it was raining in xxxxxx but I am glad to say it is fine now.

Well Dear Mother we are here today but God knows where we shall be by Wed as both Russia and France have called xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx all the recruits up before the Doctor to see if they are fit for service. There has been one section of signallers on duty on the railway since we arrived now we have just got orders to relieve them. Will you please give my best love to Dolly and tell her I should like to have a letter from her also Fanny please let e have a letter by return if you can as it does not matter where we are it will follow us & please tell Sammy & the rest as I will write to them when I have got time as I cannot stop now I have only ½ hour to get ready tell Ada I have seen George I expect he will write tonight. Give my love to all as I dont know when I shall see you again but I am not down Hearted. We have only 1 blanket & 1 oil sheet to sleep on. Well Dear Mother & Father I shall have to close now so dont get down-Hearted

From Your

Ever Loving Son

Ted

X X X X X X X

 

 

A number of postcards that he sent while in the army have also survived.

The one below is most likely to have been sent while he was doing his training because it was postmarked ‘Northumberland’. The date is not decipherable and we do not know who the people in the photograph are. It has been said that the man in bed was Edward’s father Edwin, but this does not seem likely given that he was either serving in the army or about to join up when Edward was doing his training:

 

Dear Lass

Just come to see how you are going on

Ted

 

 

The following postcard also has an illegible date stamp. It was sent from Whitley Bay, Northumberland:

 

Have the Zepps blown you up as I have received no letter for a week

Ted

Letter tomorrow

 

 

We know that by the 14th of February 1915 he was in Saffron Walden because he sent the postcard below on that date. When Edward and his brothers enlisted, their father, Edwin, joined up to show solidarity with them, and it therefore seems possible that Edward sent this card when he heard what his father was doing:

Dear Dad,

Hope you are keeping well Remember me to W Baker.

Best love

Ted

 

 

He sent the following postcard a week later, from Saffron Walden, on the 22nd of February 1915:

Dear Mother,

Just a p.c for your collection.

Hope you are going on alright as I am myself. But love to all#

Ted X X X X X X X X X X

 

 

This card followed just five days later on the 27th of February 1915; he sent this one to his sister Dolly. He was just about to be sent overseas:

Dear Dolly,

Just received your welcome letter. we are going tonight Sat. Will write you a letter when we get across. Can’t stop now busy packing up.

Best love Ted

X X X X

 

 

Edward sent the postcard below to his sister Dolly on the 12th of June 1915. He was now on the Western Front.

Dear D[olly]

Many thanks for cheery letter.

Will write you one shortly. Am in best of health hope you the same

 

 

We have no way of knowing when this picture was taken but Edward appears in the back row, the second from the right. Unfortunately, all of the others remain unidentified.

 

Edward is the one on the far right in this photograph We have no way of telling when it was taken, but it appears to have been later than the preceding picture. This picture tells a sad story. The war had evidently put its mark on him: by the time this picture was been taken, he had lost a lot of weight and looked gaunt.

The reverse of the photograph is signed by ‘Yonks’, but we don’t know who ‘Yonks’ was:

   “The nuts at dinner having a good time. Bill Harvey wishes to be rembered.

Yonks”

The Uttoxeter townsfolk sent a Christmas parcel to every one of their servicemen during the Christmas of 1915. In January 1916, the Uttoxeter Advertiser published a list of people who had acknowledged receipt of their parcels, [4a] and ‘Signaller E. W. James, France’ was amongst them.

On the 13th of October 1915 the North Staffordshire Regiment took part in the Battle of Loos. This was Uttoxeter’s worst single day of the war, in which more Uttoxeter men were killed in a single day than at any other time.

Ten days later, Edward sent the card that follows from Ypres. By the time it reached his mother, the Uttoxeter Advertiser was reporting on the disaster that had occurred in Loos. Receipt of this card will have been very welcome:

23/10/15

Dear Mother

Just a P.C. to let you know I am still going on alright

Best love

Ted X

 

 

Later in the war, when he came home on leave and it was time to go back to the front, he gave a number of his most prized possessions away. When his parents asked what he was doing, he told them that he wouldn’t be coming back this time, so he wouldn’t be needing them again[1]. It is possible that this happened at the end of July 1917, because the Uttoxeter Advertiser published a report [4h] that he and Harold had been home on leave together.

He served as a First-Class Signaller and was reported missing on 21st March 1918. On that one day 74 men in the 2nd/5th North Staffordshire Regiment were killed.[11]

A soldier friend, writing to Edward’s mother, said [4b]

 "No one seems to know what became of him. We have been great friends for 20 months, and I can only say I found him always a straight sort and one of the best anyone could wish to chum with".

In the middle of December 1918 they had still heard nothing definite about his fate and they placed a notice in the Uttoxeter Advertiser[4d] asking returning soldiers to give them any information they could concerning what had happened to Edward.

 

After the war, his mother visited his grave

 

This picture shows Edward’s Memorial Disc. These are colloquially referred-to as ‘Death Pennies’

 

In 1918 the people of Uttoxeter raised money to produce memorial brooches for the families of the town’s fallen. Edward’s brooch has survived and is illustrated below. For the rest of her life Edward’s mother wore this brooch whenever she left the house[1]:

 

The brooch tells us that he had blue eyes.

 

 

This memorial notice was posted in the Uttoxeter Advertiser in March 1919[4f] to mark the first anniversary of his death

JAMES. – In Loving Memory of Lance-Corpl. Edward William James (‘Eddie’), beloved son of Edwin and Ada James, who fell in action, March 21, 1918, at Bullecourt.

Sleep on, beloved son, and take thy rest,

Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour’s breast;

We loved thee well, but Jesus loved thee best:

Good-night!

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”