Derek Johnstone has provided the following:
James Jackson was born about 1881 at Alnwick in Northumberland to parents James Jackson from Buston, Northumberland and Elizabeth Jackson who was also born at Alnwick. The family of James lived at Hotspur Street, Alnwick in 1881 when he was 7 months old.
Records in 1891 show his father was employed as a groom coachman and the family lived at 11, Hotspur Street, Alnwick. In the house at this time when James was 10 were siblings Mary 12, George 9, Isabella 6 and John age 2.
James is not shown in the 1901 Census in the family house at Bondgate Without, where his father was a coachman. James was shown as a boarder age 21, single and employed as a railway porter living at Alnwick.
James married Rachel Ewen, from Kings Lynn, Norfolk in 1916 at Alnwick.
Full military service records for James have survived and show he enlisted at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He served first with the Yorkshire Regiment with service number 32813 and then with the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) with service number 25177. The documents show he was living at 76, Gosforth Street, Shieldfield, Newcastle-on-Tyne at the time of enlistment and family members recorded are Rachael Ewen, his wife, and sons James William Jackson and John James Jackson. James’s occupation was that of a groom. He was 5 foot 6 ¼ inches tall.
These records show Mrs R Jackson, widow, was living at 29, Grafton Street, Heaton, Newcastle when she was awarded a pension for herself and one child of 18s 9p per week from 08/04/1918. In 1921 she married Robert Warburton and in 1939 she lived at 24 Parsons Avenue, Newcastle.
James Jackson is remembered in Alnwick on A11.01, A11.02, A11.21 and A11.56 page 33.
