Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born in Alnwick on 19th November 1889, James Thompson Woodcock was the fourth child, after Alexander, Annie and Sarah, to be born to agricultural labourer John Jobson Woodcock and his wife Jane (nee Thompson) who lived in Friar’s Well Cottage. By 1901 the family had moved to East Briglee in Denwick, and in 1911 James left home and emigrated to Canada, sailing from Liverpool and making for Ontario.

On 24th October 1914 James enlisted with the 18th (Western Ontario) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in St.Thomas, Ontario, and giving his mother in Alnwick as his next of kin, his occupation as baker he became Private 53775. April 1915 saw the 18th sail on board the SS Grampian into Avonmouth followed by a posting to West Sandling Camp, Kent, and after another five months training the Battalion moved to France as part of the 4th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division.

Private Woodcock was first wounded on 26th April 1916 when he received a scalp wound at Scottish Wood near Voormezeele. The wound was slight and he was back with his battalion within two weeks joining them at Voormezeele on 9th May. Over the next two months he was promoted from Lance Corporal, to Corporal to Lance Sergeant before being wounded in the scalp and left arm at Courcelette on 15th September, rejoining the battalion at Lavicogne less than a month later. Granted ten days leave in December he was wounded for a third time on 17th January 1917 while providing cover for a trench raid at Calonne, but remained on duty. Promoted to full Sergeant in March he was wounded for a fourth time at Fresnoy in May, but again remained on duty.

In September 1917 he returned to England for officer training, being commissioned as a Lieutenant in January 1918. He did not return to France, but was posted initially to the 4th Reserve Battalion and then for three months to the Young Soldiers’ Battalion, and then the staff of the Canadian Camp at Witley. On 13th March 1919 he married Jessie Elizabeth Hughes in Hampledon, Surrey and in August the two of them returned to Canada via New York, prior to James’ demobilisation in Quebec on 19th September.

The 1921 Canadian census shows James and Jessie living in Kitchener, Ontario, taking in lodgers, and James was working at a shoe factory. Listed as a rubber worker on the 1940 Voters’ list, by the mid fifties James was retired, and they remained living in Kitchener until the 1970s. There is no trace of his death.

James Woodcock is remembered in Alnwick on A11.12