John James Paley

John James Paley Thomas Paley worked as a cowman on the Osberton Estate for several years of the last decade of the 19th century where he lived with his wife Betsy and where his eldest son, John James was born in 1893. Moving to better himself with his family, to which now had been added two daughters, to Layburn in North Yorshire where he died in 1905. His widow Betsy was left to bring up a family of five, who then moved home to Stainland near Halifax. It was here that James joined a Territorial battery of the Royal Horse Artillery going to France in April 1915. His battery was engaged several times in the actions on the Somme in the second half of 1916 when Acting Bombardier Paley was taken seriously ill or received a wound so serious he was returned to hospital in England where he succumbed and died on 25 February 1917. John is buried in the Stainland (Providence) Congregational Cemetery Church Memorial at Stainland. Courtesy of Robert Illett

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