| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private James West was a Beverley Terrier serving with the 5th and then the 4th Yorkshire Regiment. He was reported killed in action on 4 Oct 1917, on the Western Front. An article appeared in the Beverley Guardian, together with a “Local Roll of Honour” photograph, on 8 Dec 1917. A month later, on 12 Jan 1918 the Beverley Guardian ran another article to say that his sister Agnes, had received a letter from the Record Office in York informing her that her brother was alive and had rejoined his Battalion.
James William West was born in 1891, in Beverley, to shipbuilder John Robert West and Alice Mary, the family lived in Grovehill Road. His parents came from Great Yarmouth. At age 21 James joined Hull City Police but within a month he was discharged as medically unfit.
He joined the Yorkshire Regiment in Nov 1914 and by Apr 1915 was in France. The 4th and 5th Yorkshire Regiments were in trenches in the Arras sector in Oct 1917. James was subsequently awarded the Silver War Badge which would suggest he was wounded and he was discharged from the army in Aug 1918
In 1939 he was living with his sister Agnes margaret and her husband Chatham kent. He was employed as a labourer
James died in Chatham in 1972 aged 72
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |