Pte 308326 James Speakman

James was baptised in All Saints, Wigan, on 31st August 1891, parents’ residence 19 Miry Lane, and his father’s occupation factory overlooker.  His sister Matilda died aged 21 in 1899.

In 1901 the family is living at 7 Miry Lane, Wigan, with six children.  His mother is listed as Frances.  His father, 51,  Ellen 25, William 21, and Robert 16 all work in a cotton mill. The three younger children are at school, James is 9.

1911 James is the only child at home with his parents, living at 12 Herbert Street (off Miry Lane). His father is 60, a cotton spinner, his mother is also 60, James is 19, a cotton spinner like his father.  They state they have had eleven children, of whom five have died.  They have a 28 year old boarder, a coal miner.

His father died in Jun 1914 aged 64.

James enlisted in Wigan in about April or May 1916 (based on the amount of the War Gratuity), as Private 4487, Manchester Regiment. He was later transferred to the 1/8th Bn King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as Private 6363, and subsequently transferred to the 18th Bn K.L.R. with the regimental number 308326, and finally to the 19th Bn.

He was killed in action on the 24th October 1917, aged 26, and now rests at Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Kemmel Chateau was north-east of Kemmel village and the cemetery was established on the north side of the chateau grounds in December 1914. It continued to be used by divisions fighting on the southern sectors of the Belgian front until March 1918, when after fierce fighting involving both Commonwealth and French forces, the village and cemetery fell into German hands in late April. The cemetery was retaken later in the year, but in the interval it was badly shelled and the old chateau destroyed. There are now 1,135 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery and 21 from the Second World War (which all date from the Allied withdrawal ahead of the German advance of May 1940). The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

He was reported killed in the Wigan Observer on 29th November 1917:

His mother, Fanny at 2 Fletcher Street, Wigan, received James’ effects, including a War Gratuity of £7-10s and a pension of 12/6d a week.  Fanny remarried in 1920 to Samuel Whalley, and moved to 46 Clayton Street, Wigan.  She died in 1926, aged 76.

James has not been definitively identified on any memorial although there is a J Speakman commemorated at St. Thomas, Wigan, Church and Schools and on the Wigan Cenotaph, 1 Waddingtons Yard.