Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
James was born on 2nd April 1888 in Westoe, South Shields and was baptised seventeen days later. He was the son of Carlisle born school attendance officer William Sewell and his wife Margaret who had married ten years earlier, and had four other sons, Thomas, William, John and Walter, and just the one daughter, Gertrude. By 1911 James too was working for the local education authority as a clerk; his younger brother Walter was also a clerk, but he was in a local solicitor’s office.
It was with Walter that James emigrated to Canada, sailing on SS Empress of Britain from Liverpool to Quebec at the end of August 1913, and James settled in Vancouver working again as a book keeper cum clerk. On 7th June 1916 James Parker Sewell enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Vancouver becoming Sapper 505356 in the Canadian Engineers, and within six weeks he was back in England based at the Engineers Training Depot at Shorncliffe, Kent. James did not get to the front line, by January 1917 he was promoted to Corporal and two months later to Orderly Room Sergeant at Crowborough Camp near Tunbridge Wells.
Granted permission to marry, James returned home and at the end of November 1917 married Gladys Vassie in Whitley Bay. Gladys then moved to live in Seaford, Sussex to be near James.
January 1918 saw Sergeant Sewell listed in the London Gazette as having been “mentioned in despatches for valuable services rendered in connection with the war”, something that took place in August the previous year.
April 1918 saw James admitted to hospital in Eastbourne, with what was initially diagnosed with laryngitis. This was changed to TB and he was transferred to the Canadian Specialist Hospital, Lenham, Kent. Reverting to the rank of Sapper, James was invalided to Canada and hospital in Vancouver in November 1918, and was discharged from the CEF as physically unfit for service in January.
Sapper 505356 James Parker Sewell died in Balfour Sanatorium, British Columbia on 24th April 1919 and his death was listed as due to his service.
His name does not appear on any local war memorial.
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Sapper Sewell
