Photo: Pauline Priano
Blaydon Courier 09/08/1919
J. T. Wheatman
Yorkshire Regiment
31/07/1919 aged 19
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:
James Thomas Wheatman was born November 9th 1899 at 15 Crassbeck Terrace, Eston, a sub district of Ormsby, Yorkshire. He was the son of Robert Goodill Wheatman and Harriet Wheatman, née Green, their fifth child and one of 7, he had two sisters and four brothers. His entire family came from Yorkshire, his father was an iron stone miner and by 1911 was a deputy at Cleveland Mines, Loftus, Yorkshire. His family migrated to the north east and settled in Craghead, Stanley, County Durham.
James Thomas worked as a miner and was called up for service April 2nd 1917 at the age of 18. He was in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Yorkshire Regiment and remained in England until January 6th 1918 when he was sent to France.
On March 29th 1918 he was wounded in the back and March 31st 1918 was sent back to England. His wounds had caused paraplegia and he spent the next 130 days in hospital and underwent an operation. His wounds healed but he was subject to frequent attacks of fever. On August 2nd 1918 the medical board concluded he was permanently unfit to serve and he was discharged August 23rd 1918, Silver Badge number 431379.
James Thomas continued to suffer after his discharge and died at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, July 31st 1919. A Coroner’s inquest was held August 1st and it was concluded that he died from, "Uraemia set up by gun shot wounds received in action.”
Obituaries:
The Evening Chronicle, Saturday 02/08/1919 reports:
WHEATMAN-Died of wounds at the Royal Infirmary N/c July 31, James Thomas, dearly loved youngest son of Robert and Harriet Wheatman, 14 Greylingstadt Ter., Craghead. Internment at Craghead, on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 3.30.
Blaydon Courier 09/08/1919 carries the following:
“Wheatman – Died of wounds at the Royal Infirmary, Newcastle, July 31st, James Thomas, youngest son of Robert and Harriet Wheatman, 14 Greylingstadt Terrace, Craghead.”
He is buried at St. Thomas Craghead alongside the grave of his mother Harriet Wheatman nee Green. St Thomas is no longer a functioning church and the Craghead Roll of Honour which bears the names of the men from the parish who made the ultimate sacrifice is in the archives of the D.L.I. Collection.
As of November 2014 James Thomas’s name has been accepted by the CWGC as a casualty of WW1 and in November 2015 they marked the grave of Private Wheatman with a military headstone honouring - after 96 years - his sacrifice, finally bringing him in from the cold.
James Thomas Wheatman was unmarried and has many living relatives, one of whom still lives in Craghead not far from St. Thomas Church.
