Soldier Record

The 'unknown' Great Uncle

Messing around on the internet, I typed in my mother's maiden name and to my amazement found a reference to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. Pursuing the link I found details of what turned out to be my great-uncle James - we can say this with a high degree of certainty as his parents had listed themselves as being of 'Meeting Alley - Watford'. A stray bit of family history provided by my late mother was that my greatgrandfather was a blacksmith in Meeting Alley - a fact I had forgotten until coming across James' record. Additional research through the Western Front Association and the Beds & Herts Regimental diaries provide just enough detail to infer that James died in the Battle for Hill 60 (just outside Ypres) in April 1915. I am planning to visit his grave in April 2015 to lay some flowers on behalf of his surviving family.