James Dealey was born in Great Berkhampstead (Berkhamsted), Hertfordshire in the Autumn of 1882 and baptised, along with his brother Jesse and a cousin Thomas, on Thursday, 21st December of the same year. He was second child of Joseph Dealey and Martha Elizabeth Beddall and he had six younger siblings who were: Jesse, Sarah, William and twins Lizzie and Lydia. One other child whose name is not known died in infancy.

The Dealey family lived in Red Lion Yard in Berkhamsted where James’ father Joseph worked as a ‘Labourer’. The family home, as the name suggests, was in the yard behind a pub called the ‘Red Lion’ and this small space contained living accommodation for eighteen families totalling some ninety-six people, or just over five inhabitants in each tiny house.

By the time he reached his nineteenth birthday in 1901, James was a ‘Coal Carter’ and boarding with the Hitcher family in George Street Berkhamsted. It is not known how long James lived in the Hitcher home but, by 1911 he had returned to his parent’s house in Red Lion Yard and worked as a ‘Builder’s Labourer’.

In the Spring of 1911 James married Gertrude Annie Ambrose in her home town of Hemel Hempstead. His new wife, known as Annie, was twelve years older than James and worked in domestic service and it is possible she may have been introduced to James by his youngest sister Lizzie, who was also in service and may have worked with Annie. 

When James and Annie married he adopted her two young children, Ethel May and Leonard Harold Ambrose, who were seven and four years of age respectively.  The newly-weds moved to Hemel Hempstead where they set up home at 22 Sunnyhill Road in Hammerfield and where they soon had two children of their own together. First, Elsie Grace in 1912 ,followed two years later by another daughter Ivy Winifred.

It appears that James enlisted under the Group or Derby Scheme and attested at Watford in late 1915 and chose to defer his call-up until the following year. As a married man and due to his age, he was not mobilised for service until May 1916 when he joined the (The Queen's) Royal West Surrey Regiment.

Soon afterwards James was posted to the 13th (Labour) Battalion which was formed in July 1916 and he completed his basic training before being sent with his unit to France in the following September. It is not known where James fought but at some time before April 1917 he was taken ill. It appears he contracted meningitis which was not uncommon due to the conditions in the trenches and the proxity of other men who shared utensils and drinking vessels. The casue of death is recorded as "Septic Memingitis" which was in all likliehood the bacterial and most serious form of the illness.

James failed to recover and died on Monday, 23rd April 1917.

His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette a month after he had died and although it records that he died of wounds, the official Army records available state his cause of death as ‘Disease’. 

He is commemorated on the memorial plaque inside St John’s Church in Boxmoor.

James is Remembered with Honour in Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, Nord, France where he is interred in Grave 1.E.15.

He was 29 years old when he died.

James was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.