| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Jim Birch, aged 31, of the 7th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment was killed in action near Arras on 25 Apr 1917. Initially it was supposed that he had been wounded but the Beverley Guardian of 9 Jun 1917 finally confirmed his death. His body was not recovered and he is today commemorated on the Arras Memorial in the city itself. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Jim Birch was born in Beverley on 31 Jul 1885 and baptised, as James Birch, at Beverley Minster on 7 Dec 1885. His father Riby Birch was a coal porter, from Keyingham and his mother Mary Elizabeth Hornby, from Bewholme, they were married at St Mary’s Church in 1876. Jim was their eldest son, he had 8 siblings. He became a tanner’s labourer, working at Hodgson and Sons’ Tannery. In 1891 the family were in Sparkmill Row (now Terrace), later at 59 Flemingate and during the war at 19 Beckside. Jim was unmarried and continued to live at home.
Jim initially joined the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and may have been in the TA before the war. Jim later moved to the 7th Battalion. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission information has his age wrongly recorded, as 35, and states he was in the 4th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. Jim is remembered today on the Hengate War Memorial and on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |