20th Battalion Badge

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

James Edward was the second child of Redcar born coal miner James Henry and his Cumbrian born wife Frances (nee Thirlwell) Wilson. They had married in the first quarter of 1888 in Lanchester registration district and the 1891 census shows them living with Frances’ parents, Henry and Sarah Thirlwell, in Stone Row, Holmside, Burnhope along with two month old Sarah Elizabeth who had been born in Nettlesworth.

By 1901 James’ mother had died and he and his sister Sarah remained living with their grandparents, who had now moved to Crawcrook with two of their sons and their children. James’ father, James Henry had remarried and was living in South Shields. When their grandparents died Sarah and James went to live with their Uncle Thomas and his family in Craghead and in 1911 the household consisted of Thomas and his wife Mary, their six children, Sarah and James, and two other cousins, and James had found work at the pit as a pony hewer.

After his sister Sarah married in 1912, James emigrated to Canada and the next that is known of him is that on 15th June 1917 he was in Toronto enlisting in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, giving as his address the Triangle Club, a YMCA hostel on Bay Street. James was passed as fit and became Private 2562310 in 1st Depot Battalion, 1st Central Ontario Regiment.

The following year James was in France as part of the 20th Battalion Central Ontario Regiment, who fought as part of the 4th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division. On 11th October 1918 his unit was involved in fighting at the bridgeheads across the Canal de l’Escourt where he was one of the 11 officers and 309 other ranks who were caught in heavy machine gun fire and killed in action.

His name does not appear on any local war memorial.

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Wilson