James Edwin Hallett was born in Hunslet, a suburb of Leeds, Yorkshire on Wednesday, 10th November 1897 and baptised at the church of St. Mary the Virgin on Boxing Day in the same year. He was the eldest of three children born to James Hallett and Kate Ellen Ratcliffe and his younger siblings were George and Albert. His brother George served with the Royal Navy during the last two years of the war and survived the conflict. Shortly after James’ birth the family moved to Chedworth not far from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, where his father went to work as a ‘Foreman Carpenter’.

By 1908 the family had moved again, this time to Leverstock Green near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where James and Kate had taken over the running of the village Post Office. James senior combined his postal responsibilities with licensee and landlord of the ‘White Horse’ pub in the village. The ‘White Horse’ stood next door to the Post Office until the early sixties, when Leverstock Green underwent significant redevelopment.

James went to the local village school in Leverstock Green and when he left in 1910 aged thirteen, he was apprenticed to Adam Joseph Chennells, a ‘Grocer’ at 31 High Street in Hemel Hempstead (an Indian take-away today). Adam Chennells was a notable figure in Hemel Hempstead and had been ‘Mayor and Bailiff’ of the town in 1901-02. He continued as an Alderman on the town council for many years.

On the outbreak of war James was only sixteen, but like many young men, he was swept up in the seeming ‘glory’ of the war. In April 1915 he went to enlist, still only seventeen years and five months old. Despite being underage, he successfully joined the Colours and went to train with the Hertfordshire Regiment in Bury St. Edmunds.In August 1916 he embarked for France where he was transferred to the 12th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, which had suffered so much on the eve of the Battle of the Somme.

He arrived as part of a draft of 100 men on the 5th September and was immediately engaged in trench-making, laying communications wires and spells in the front line trenches. This routine continued interspersed with training drills until early November. The Battalion War Diary records the following: “5/11/16 Battⁿ moved up into Brigade Reserve at Thiepval. The Battⁿ were occupied during early hours of the night in making a road through to Crucifix Corner…8 O.R. wounded”. James was one of the unfortunate men injured, most likely by enemy shelling, as they worked. He was evacuated down the line and came back to England to recover from his injuries. In February 1917 he went back to France following his convalescence and was transferred again, this time to the 15th Battalion Welsh Regiment.

The Carmarthenshire’s had suffered severely at the Battle of the Somme and drafts of newly trained and transferred men from other Battalions were joining to rebuild the unit strength. By June the Battalion was preparing for the attack on Pilckem Ridge, the opening encounter of the Third Battle of Ypres, or ‘Passchendaele’, which would prove so costly for all combatants. At the end of the month James was in the trenches and the 15th Battalion incurred a large number of casualties before the planned assault began on the 31st July. Worse followed and by the 2nd August the Battalion War Diary records the casualties during the battle: “31.7.17 to 2.8.17 Killed 15 Wounded 131 Wounded (at duty) 2 Missing 7” A total of 155 Other Ranks.

There is some confusion regarding the exact date of James’ death. All official records indicate Wednesday, 1st August 1917, however, his parents received a letter from one of his comrades that states he died on Tuesday 31st July 1917. This earlier date is the one accepted by his parents and indeed, this is the date his family recorded on his Grandparent’s headstone in 1924. James certainly died on one of those two dates however, given the weight of available evidence I have recorded the official date confirming James’ death on Wednesday, 1st August 1917.

James is Remembered with Honour in the Artillery Wood Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, where he is interred in Grave III. F. 2. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his mother Kate, reads: “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAT HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS”

James lies next to George Bates from Hemel Hempstead in this cemetery.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

James was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.