Carole Fife has provided the following:
James, who was born in Gateshead and enlisted in Bedlington is probably the oldest man to be named on any of the Bedlington Memorials. Certainly he is the only one I have found with 5 census entries. James was born in 1870 to Samuel and Dorothy Hann. In the 1871,1881 and 1891 censuses the family were living in Parkinson Street, Felling. Samuel was a blacksmith, and by 1891 two of James's brothers were apprenticed while he was a colliery labourer.
In 1897 he married Elizabeth Jane Brown in Gateshead, and in 1901 they were living at 10, Stainton Street, Felling, along with his widowed father, brother John and sister Mary. By 1911 James and Elizabeth had moved to 2, Millbank Terrace, Bedlington, and James was still a colliery labourer. James and Elizabeth had no children of their own, but in 1902 they adopted a daughter named Elsie Mary.
He is remembered in Felling on F32.23 and in Bedlington on B15.02, B15.03, B15.06 and B15.26 page 71
