Pte 32259 James Woods

James Woods was born in 1892 in Liverpool and was the son of John Woods and his wife Margaret (nee Wills). When they married in 1887 at St Catherine's Church, Edge-Hill, Liverpool and his father signed his last name as Wood. They had ten children, three of whom died in infancy. James had older siblings Margaret and John Charles, and younger siblings Henry, Eleanor, George, and Dorothy. He was baptised in St. Catherine’s, Edge Hill, on 14th December 1892, his parents’ residence Macauley Street, and his father’s occupation listed as plumber.

 

At the time of the 1901 census, the family is living at 43 Sophia Street, with six children. His father, 39, is a plumber, his mother is 41, James is 8.

 

By 1911 they have moved to 100 Upper Hill Street, Toxteth, and have seven children. His father is 49, a  general labourer, his mother is 50, and Margaret, 21, and Eleanor, 14, have no occupation. John, 19, is a compositor apprentice, James is 18, a warehouseman’s clerk, and Henry, 16, is a plumber’s apprentice.  George, 11, and Dorothy, 8, are at school.

 

His mother died in September 1911, and was buried in a public grave.  Two years later his sister Eleanor died at the age of 16.

Prior to the war he had been employed by Messrs: Wilson, Son, and Co of Chapel Street, Liverpool as a Clerk. 

He enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 20th Battalion (A Company), The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 32259 when he was killed in action on the 21st October 1916, aged 24, during the Battle of the Transloy Ridges which was part of the ongoing Somme Offensive. 

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, France.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

Jim was engaged to be married when he was killed. His family and fiancée placed notices in the Liverpool Echo on 15th November 1916:

 

 

More details were reported in the Liverpool Echo on 21st November 1916:

“Private J. Woods, K.L.R., formerly residing at 7, Squires Street, Edge Hill, was killed in France by a shell whilst getting water.  He has two brothers in the army, one of whom is at present home wounded.  Prior to the war he was a clerk employed by Messrs. Wilson, Son & Co.  Chapel Street. His loss is keenly felt by all who knew him.  They miss him most who loved him best.”

 

And on the first anniversary of his death:

 

 

 

 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £3-10s went to his fiancée Elizabeth Powell.

 

His father John, at 18 Freeman Street, Edge Hill, was awarded a pension of 5/- a week from November 1918.  

It is not known why the documents were received in the Pension Office from the Paymaster on 30/4/1919, two and a half years after James was killed.

 

His sister Margaret married in 1914; her husband Charles W. Bromilow, 7th Royal Welch Fusiliers, was killed in action in Syria on 06th November 1917, aged 34.  He rests in Beersheba War Cemetery, Israel.

 

His youngest sister Dorothy died at the age of 19 in 1922.

 

In 1939 his father, 78, is still at 18 Freeman Street, listed as a plumber; living with him is his widowed daughter Margaret Bromilow, 50.

 

His father died at the age of 85 in 1947.

 

Sadly, Jim has not been identified on any memorial.