BORN: 1896, Bishton.
UNIT: D Battery, 24th Brigade Royal Field Artillery.
DIED: of Pneumonia on 01 Nov 1918, near Rouen, France, aged 22.
BURIED: St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Bishton. Magor.
Early Life
George Thomas JAMES was born in 1896 in Bishton, Monmouthshire the first-born of 10 children of William John and Sarah Rebecca JAMES. George was baptised in Bishton on 08 Nov 1896. His father William was a railway platelayer from Magor. He married Sarah Rebecca PRETTY, from Marshfield, in 1894.
By 1901, George had a younger brother, William, and the family lived at Crossing Cottage, Bishton. He attended Bishton School.
10 Years later, in 1911, George was one of 7 children; 4 boys and 3 girls. Sadly another sibling had already died in childhood. The expanded family group still lived in Bishton. George, now aged 14, worked as a farm labourer whilst his siblings were in school.
George and WW1
Enlisting Early
George’s service record appears to be amongst the many that are missing or were burned in the Blitz during WW2. So do not know precisely when he enlisted. However, calculations based on his War Gratuity indicate that he joined up in the month from 02 Aug 1915. We do know that he arrived in France on 27 Dec 1915.
George joined the Royal Field Artillery as Gunner 105311 in D Battery, XXIV Brigade. (A Gunner was equivalent to Private in the infantry). [NB: He was NOT Gunner 189304 as quoted by some researchers. This was a different man of the same name who survived the war]
His Bridgade
The RFA was the largest of the British Army’s three artillery units: the others being the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA). The RFA were reasonably mobile and deployed close to the front line.
By 1916, an RFA brigade comprised 4 batteries, each of 6 guns. A, B and C batteries used 18-pounder field guns. These fired explosive or shrapnel shells at a low trajectory, usually at a visible target. D battery (George’s) used 4.5-inch Howitzers that fired shells in a higher arc so that they fell down directly on their target. This meant they could be used to attack defences behind obstacles such as a hill or wood.
In 1918, the George’s unit served with the 6th Division of the British Army. They fought in the Battle of St. Quentin, The Battles of the Lys, The Advance in Flanders, Battles of the Hindeburgh Line, and the Pursuit to the Selle.
A Gunner's Life
George’s wartime days would have would have been physically demanding. Even when not in action, there was plenty of hard work to do. He would have undertaken frequent gunnery practice to build up the required teamwork and fitness needed for long periods of rapid fire. George would have spent many hours maintaining the guns, moving ammunition, building gun pits, dug outs, and latrines. In addition, the teams of 6 horses that pulled each gun carriage were considered more valuable than the men, and they had to be groomed, fed and watered four times a day.
Artillery brigades were moved frequently to support infantry movements and attacks, as these summarised entries from the 24 Brigade War Diary for Sep 1918 illustrates.
03 Sep 1918 – Travelled by train for 14 hours to the Heilly and moved 3.5 km to the ruined village of Bonnay, east of Amiens.
11 Sep 1918 – 07:30 a.m. marched from Bonnay to Corbie (3.5 km).
12 Sep 1918 – Marched from Corbie to Misery (32 km).
13 Sep 1918 – Marched to Trefcon (17 km). Ordered to be ready for action before dawn the following day. Position selected near St. Quentin Woods.
15 Sep 1918 – Fired for 42 minutes in support of Infantry Attack. “43rd and 112th Batteries slightly gassed during the night”.
Guns had to be manned constantly and gunners would work around the clock in 24 hour shifts during barrage offensives. Artillery brigades were deployed before an infantry attack to take out German defenses and barbed wire. However, this warned the enemy of an impending assault. The British had developed the ‘Creeping Barrage’ tactic during The Somme; firing a wall of shells slowly moving forward over enemy trenches in front of an advancing infantry. Also, at any time of the day or night George and his comrades could also receive SOS signals from infantry in distress who had called for artillery support.
Gunner Aubrey Wade who was a signaler in the RFA gives us an idea of George’s job:
“A few yards away the guns were incessantly firing, their barrels red-hot, their breech blocks jamming, and having to be opened with pickaxes for the next round; the gunners, faces blackened with oil and smoke, mechanically slamming home the shells, and staring sore eyed through the sights.”
Death and Burial
His death
George died of pneumonia on 01 Nov 1911 near Rouen, France, just ten days before the war ended. He had survived bullets, bombs and gas but then lost his life to WW1’s other deadly weapon – disease. In this time before antibiotics, about 113,000 British and Commonwealth troops died of disease compared with 418,000 killed in action and 167,000 who died of wounds. In other words, about 1 in 6 deaths were due to typhoid, trench fever, typhus, gangrene, and influenza.
The first wave of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 impacted those on the Western Front in April. Although virulent it had a low mortality rate. The deadly second wave spread from Sep to Nov 1918 and influenza killed tens of millions of people. The majority of deaths resulted from secondary pneumonia. Casualty clearing stations were overwhelmed. As nurse Sister Catherine MACFIE noted “The boys were coming in with colds and a headache and they were dead within two or three days. Great big handsome fellows, healthy men, just came in and died.”
His burial
George was buried in the St. Sever Cemetery Extension located in the suburbs to the south of Rouen. Commonwealth camps and hospitals were built in the area early in war. They included 8 general, 5 stationary, 1 British Red Cross, 1 labour hospital and No. 2 Convalescent Depot. The dead from these hospitals were buried in St. Sever city cemetery. The extension to this cemetery was built in Sep 1916. George’s death was announced in a local newspaper.
Medals and Pension
George was awarded ‘the full set’ of 3 medals.5 The British War, the Victory and the 1914-15 Star medals were nicknamed Pip, Squeak and Wilfred. These were characters in a 1920’s Daily Mirror comic strip that coincided with the issue of the 3 medals. The 1914-15 Star was awarded to in anyone who served in any theatre of war outside the UK between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915. As a recipient of this medal Walter would automatically qualify for the British War and Victory medals.
George’s father received an initial payment of £27 10s 0d on 21 Feb 1919 followed by a War Gratuity payment of a further £14 10s 0d on 12 Dec 1919.
What happened to his family?
Parents
Siblings
William John JAMES: He started work with GWR as Porter at Llanwern on 13 Nov 1916. In 1917, William also joined the army. He served with the King’s Somerset Light Infantry and was wounded in action. However, he survived the war and returned to work for GWR. William married Ivy Winifred PENWILL in Cardiff in 1929. He died in Cardiff in 1970.
Reginald Arthur JAMES: He married Miss Graham Gilston EVANS in 1944. They had a daughter Rosemary Gilston JAMES. She won the quiz show Mastermind in 1978. Reg died in WW2 in the Netherlands. He served as Private 3912235 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers. He is buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery.
George’s other brothers and sisters all married and raised families in the area. They were Elizabeth Ann, Mabel Gladys, David Charles, Herbert Wilfred, Gwendoline Anna and Marjorie May JAMES.
Contact me if you want more detail about the sources used or any help finding your ancestors’ stories, military or otherwise.
Links
A Gunner’s Life : https://sites.google.com/site/175brigaderfa/a-gunner-s-life
Imperial War Museum, Voices of the the First World War: Gunners. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-gunners
Shaun Mcguire’s website: http://www.shaunmcguire.co.uk/
