William Kirby and Brenda McMahon have submitted the following:-
James was born at Houghton le Spring on March 21st 1917. His parents were Herbert Herman Mordecai and his wife Elizabeth Isabella (nee Brown). He was their only child. The couple married on May 20th 1916.
James’s father Herbert served in WW1 and was killed in action September 10th 1918.
After Herbert‘s death Elizabeth remarried on February 28th 1920 to Matthew McLeod. They went on to have several children.
James married Irene J. Mitchell at Lambeth, London in 1939.
A report shows that he joined the Essex Regiment on 15 November 1939 and was taken prisoner with the 2nd/5th Battalion at the Battle of Deir El Shein (Egypt) on July 1st 1942.
Deir-el-Shein was a small depression of solid rock covered by 18 inches of sand and 2/5th Essex were dumped there with only their rifle companies - no anti-tank guns, no carriers and certainly no armour … with no explosives to shift rock, slit trenches could only be scraped into 18 inches of sand and afforded no cover from view or protection from shot or shell … At 7 a.m. on 1 July 1942 the German 15th Panzer Division arrived and started to shell the Battalion and launch an all-out attack Despite being totally outnumbered this was repulsed with fighting continuing until early afternoon when a sandstorm blew up. Under cover of this 15th Panzer threw all their tanks against the Battalion's pitiful anti-tank defences and, of course, broke through. Fighting still continued area to area until early evening when resistance inevitably ceased with 2/5th Essex completely annihilated - all dead, wounded or captured.
777 Prisoners of war were presumed dead not missing. In fact, James “died after escaping from the enemy September 8th 1943.
He is listed on Panel 8 of the Cassino Memorial, Casino, Provincial di Frosinone, Lazio, Italy
James Mordecai is not remembered on a local War Memorial.
