James Walter Hammond
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
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James was born in 1883 in Radcliffe on Trent, and was the son of the late Edmund Irving Hammond , a brewers manager and Lousia Hammond of Trent Bridge House Newark, Edmund and Louisa had 4 children , James b1883 Radcliffe, Mary b1884 Newark, Frederick Leopold Knight b1886 Newark and Daisy Irving B1889 Newark. The only time we come across James living with his family is in the 1891 census , at this time he is 8 years of age and is living at 21 Portland Street, Lincoln with his parents shown as Edward I a brewers manager and Louisa Hammond, together with his siblings Mary, Fred, Daisy, also at the address are two servants. By the 1901 census , James has moved out of the family home and we find him , single 18 years of age and a shop assistant living in a boarding house at 21-27 Sepulchre Gate, Doncaster , he is a shop assistant and is sharing the boarding house with other shop assistants and drapers assistants. By the 1911 census , James now 27 years, still single and a drapers assistant is living at a boarding house at 28 Castle Street, Shrewsbury, he is boarding there with 4 others drapers. In the same census his mother Louisa 58 years, by now a widow, her husband Edmund Irving having died in 1909 aged 50 years , is living at 72 Harcourt Street, Newark with her daughter Daisy Irving now 22 years and one servant.
James enlisted at Shrewsbury on 7th September 1914 and served in the 6th battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry. He was killed in action on 12th February 1916 , he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
This is an extract from the Magnus School, Newark diary of the 'Great War' Sunday 12 February 1916: A nephew of the Mayor of Newark, Alderman William Edward Knight, was killed while moving into front line trenches. Old Magnusian James Walter Hammond, 33, whose widowed mother Louisa lived in Trent Bridge House, Newark, enlisted in August 1914 with his younger brother Frederick. Both went to the Western battlefront in July 1915 and fought side by side through the Battle of Loos and many other actions. On Sunday night 12 February 1916 the Platoon was proceeding up to the trenches after a bombardment when a shell burst by the side of the communications trench, killing James. It fell to Fred to write home to tell his mother and uncle. James is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
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