James Wells was born on Thursday, 15th December 1885 in Tring, Hertfordshire. He was the youngest child born to John Wells and Elizabeth Seabrook who had a total of twelve children; Eliza, Emma, Louisa, Rhoda, William, James, Clara, Ada, Ernest, Annie, Sidney and finally James. Eliza, Rhoda and the elder of the two James’ died when they were young.

Only four years after James was born his father John died in 1889 aged fifty-six and his mother Elizabeth was left to raise the large family by herself. Only the two oldest children still at home were working and Elizabeth had a further three children under the age of ten to feed and clothe.

By 1901, only James was still living at home with his mother on Charles Street, Tring and as a sixteen-year-old he had found work as a ‘Carter’ on a nearby farm. James then moved to Apsley to take a job as a ‘Groom’ and he was living there when his mother died in early 1907 aged sixty. It may have been her death which prompted James to choose a career in the Royal Navy.

He enlisted on the 18th October 1907 for an initial period of five years with an option to extend for a further seven years and rather misleadingly gave his date of birth as the 15th December 1887. Despite this apparent deception, he was sent to HMS Nelson as a Stoker 2nd Class to begin basic training. In 1909 he was promoted Stoker 1st Class and in June 1912 he exercised his option to sign on for seven more years and was transferred to HMS Victory II. He was there for two months before joining HMS Queen Mary as Leading Stoker in September 1914.

James saw action as part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, when Queen Mary was engaged in attempting to intercept a German force that bombarded the North Sea coast of England in December 1914.

This action was the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on the 16th December 1914, when the towns were attacked by the Imperial German Navy. The attack resulted in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died. It caused public outrage towards the German navy for an attack against civilians and against the Royal Navy for its failure to prevent the raid. The raid resulted in the first death of a British soldier from enemy action on British soil for 200 years, when Pte. Theophilus Jones, aged twenty-nine, was killed. Eight German sailors were killed and twelve wounded.

James then fought at the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. On the first day of the Battle HMS Queen Mary was hit first by the German battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz and then twice more by SMS Derfflinger. HMS Queen Mary’s magazine exploded shortly afterwards, sinking the ship in just six minutes. In all 1,266 crewmen were lost and only eighteen survivors were picked up by the destroyers HMS Laurel, HMS Petard, and HMS Tipperary, and two by the Germans.

James was killed on Wednesday, 31st May 1916, the seventh man commemorated on the Hemel Hempstead War Memorial to die on this day, at the Battle of Jutland.

HMS Queen Mary is designated as a protected place under the ‘Protection of Military Remains Act 1986’ as it is the grave of 1,266 officers and men.

He is commemorated on the memorial at St Mary’s Church, Apsley.

James is Remembered with Honour on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire, United Kingdom, Panel 17.

He was 30 years old when he died.

James was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.