In Hexham (St. Mary) Roman Catholic Churchyard is the Commonwealth War Grave of:-

Buried Elsewhere
In this Churchyard
1582 Private
J.W. Riley
Northumberland Fusiliers
1st December 1915 age 38

Beloved son of
James and Esther Riley
R.I.P.

The son of Esther Riley, of Hexham, Northumberland.

Dorothy Hall has supplied the following:

James was the son of James (1891 a mason’s labourer) and Esther Riley and was born in 1877 at Hexham. He was apprenticed as a mason to J. Darlington of Hexham.

In 1900 James enlisted at Hexham and joined the 5th Foot Northumberland Fusiliers (7679). His description said he was 5 feet 4 and a quarter inches high, weighed 122 pounds. He had a fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. James served in South Africa from 15th March 1901 to the 4th June 1902. He is listed on Hexham’s South African Memorial H51.05

By 1911 his father had died and his mother Esther with her two youngest sons had moved to Benwell. James was a boarder at Mud Market Hexham.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 James re-enlisted but died on December 1st 1915 aged 38 years. He is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard but it is not known exactly where and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 2014 arranged  a new headstone.

James’s brother Francis (Frank) also died in the war.

James William Riley is remembered at Hexham on H51.03, H51.06, H51.15,  H51.30 and H51.51.