Left: George Right; James: Photo: Simon Nichol
Certificate given to James's mother
Simon Nicholson has provided the following:
James was born in Sheriff Hill, Gateshead, around 1892. His father was also called James as was his father before him, the name ran in the family. He had several brothers and sisters, the photo shows James on the right with his younger brother George who was killed on the Somme on the 1st July 1916, George’s body was never found, he was also in the Tyneside Scottish.
James was a miner, as were his father and his brothers. He worked at Sunniside pit and he met my Great Grandmother who resided in Whickham, Mary, (b1896 d1989). They were married in 1908 and had a daughter, Hannah, in 1911, I think. Not long after Aunt Han, as she was known, was born, the family moved to Bedlington where James got a job in the colliery, probably earning more money than at Sunniside I am guessing. They lived in a colliery house but I don’t know the address. Around this time my Great Grandmother taught James to read and write as he was illiterate when they married. By this time James's father and the rest of his family lived in Chopwell at Mersey Street and worked in Chopwell colliery.
When the war started in 1914 James enlisted along with George into the Tyneside Scottish 21st Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. My Great Grandmother said it was because he got more money in the army. They trained at Alnwick throughout most of 1915 and toward the end of that year moved down to Salisbury Plain for the last training before being posted to France in January 1916, by which time my Great Grandmother was pregnant with my Grandmother Jenny, (b1916 d1973).
When Jenny was born James was allowed back for a few days' leave from France to see his new born daughter. It was the only time he saw her as he was killed later in 1916. He was gassed, and ended up in one of the British hospitals in Rouen where he died on 20th June 1916, the day before the Somme offensive.
After he was killed, my Grandmother had to vacate the colliery house at Bedlington and she moved back to Whickham to be with her parents. Eventually she re-married to a Scotsman we knew as Pop Smith, and went on to have 2 more sons with Pop. She always referred to her time with James as her happy time. Hannah didn’t get on with Pop and she eventually moved down to London in the 1920s and had a husband and 7 children of her own. Jenny married my grandfather Harry and they had 3 girls, one of whom is my mother.
It was a great shame that James and his brother George died as I’m sure my great grandmother's life would have been a lot different - but that is probably a similar story to many at that time.
James is remembered in Bedlington Station on B163.04 and in Bedlington on B15.06
