L/Cpl 52443 James Caine

• Age: 25
• From: St Helens, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 18th October 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

James Caine was born around July 1890 in St Helens and was the son of John Caine and his wife Mary (nee Lee), the birthdate based on him being aged 9 months on the 1891 Census taken on the 5th April.  Both parents were born in 1853 and his father John was a coal miner. He had a younger sister Mary who was born in 1882. 

The 1891 Census shows the family living at 37 Barrow Street, Windle, Lancashire. His father, John, is aged 38, born in Sutton, Lancashire in 1853 is a coal-miner. His mother, Mary, is also aged 38 with no occupation listed  and was born in St Helens. At the taking of the Census they have two children Mary aged 9, born 1882 who is a scholar and James born 1891 were both born in St Helens. John’s mother Mary a widow aged 50, born 1841 in Rochdale is also living at the address, as are boarders Thomas Balfe aged 36, born 1855 in Dublin employed as a copper labourer and his wife Ellen aged 31, born 1860 in St Helens with no occupation listed. 
John is boarding at 2 Clarence Street, Peasley Cross with the Hogan family.

On the 1901 Census, James Cain, aged 10, is boarding at 2 Clarence Street, Peasley Cross with the Hogan family. 

The 1911 Census shows James in India at Havelock Barracks, Dilkusha, Lucknow, India, where he is serving as a bandsman with the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment.

KORL Museum - Private James Caine number 8729 Disembarked 23 Aug 1914. Transferred No 52443 Private Liverpool Regiment 

He enlisted in Lancaster and originally served as 8729, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. He returned from India, disembarking on the 23rd August 1914 and following a transfer he was serving in the 18th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Lance-Corporal No 52443 when he was killed in action on the 18th October 1916, aged 25, during the Battle of the Transloy Ridges which was part of the ongoing Somme Offensive.

18^th Bn Diary

18^th October 1916

Attacked German trenches commencing 3.40 am. Relieved by 19^th Manchester Regt. Took up position in support Bn trenches W. of Goose Alley.

Graham Maddocks in his book Liverpool Pals gives an overview of the events of the day:

“At 3.40 am the whistles blew, and the Battalion left its assembly trenches, in three waves, approximately fifty yards apart, and began to cross No Man’s Land. Almost immediately, the German Barrage fell on the first wave and halted its advance, so that the second wave soon caught up with it. This was not a great problem at first, and the two combined waves were able to advance together for about 300 yards, whereupon they encountered the German Grid Trench system. On the right of the advance, it was found that the wire was largely intact, apart from a few gaps, and the Germans bombed and machine gunned these gaps, which prevented any further progress. Elsewhere along the trench, however, the wire was cut and there did not seem to be any serious opposition. Nevertheless, the men hesitated to jump down into the German trenches, and instead, began to filter back across to the safety of their own lines.

By this time the third wave had caught up, as had a fourth wave, which had been detailed to mop up any opposition once the trenches had fallen, and all four waves became intermingled which added to the confusion. No less than three attempts were made to try to get the men to go forward again, but each attempt became markedly less successful than its predecessor, and eventually the attack came to a standstill. Although the British assembly trenches had received the attention of the German guns, the attackers in No Mans Land had not come under any great intensity of fire up until this point.

However, once it became obvious to the Germans that the attack was disorganised and faltering, they began to fire into the massed men from the flanks. It was probably this that finally settled the issue and convinced the Pals that they could no longer gain the enemy trenches, and all four waves, now merged into one, began to retreat to their own lines. The whole attack had been an abysmal failure, and no ground had been gained at all”.               

James' body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as 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 01^st 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.”

He was reported as Wounded in the Liverpool Daily Post on Wednesday 29 November 1916: 

Wounded. 

King’s (Liverpool Regt.) - Caine, 52243, J. (St Helens) ; 

Soldiers Effects and Pension to father John, 6 Chorley Street, St Helens, the address is most probably that of his married daughter Mary and Samuel Fairhurst. She was married as Mary Elizabeth Leigh in 1902 at St Mark's Church, St Helens. 

On the 1921 Census at Chorley Steet father John, born 1852 in St Helens is widowed, Mary E. and Samuel Fairhurst, both born 1882, have 4 children, mother’s maiden name Lee: Irene(1904) , Samuel(1907) , James Austin(1912) and Marian(1920). Mary sadly died aged 40 in 1923. 

James is commemorated on the St Helens Roll of Honour.

His father, William, died in 1924, aged 72, there is no positive death record for mother Mary between 1891 and 1921. 

We currently have no further information on James Caine, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.