James Henry Philbey was born on Bury Road in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire on Wednesday, 6th May 1884 and he was baptised on 9th April 1893 aged nine, along with his younger brother William Charles. He was the son of Edward Philbey and Mary Ann Bailey who had three children together, James Henry, Lucy Jane and William Charles. Lucy sadly died in 1904 aged only sixteen. William also fought in the Great War with the Hertfordshire Regiment and survived the conflict.

When James left school in 1897, he followed his father Edward into the building trade and was apprenticed as a "Bricklayer". He met a local girl from nearby Piccott’s End, Caroline Raggett, who worked in Apsley Mills. They became sweethearts and were married on 27th October 1906. The set up home at number 1 Astley Road and almost a year to the day following their marriage, their first child Sydney George was born. Two daughters followed: Lucy May in August 1909 and Constance Annie in February 1914.

James joined the Colours under the Group (Derby) Scheme and on the promise of service at his attestation, he was transferred to the Army reserve. James was due for call up in April 1916, but instead he went to London to enlist at Whitehall on the 14th January 1916 and joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). On his entry to the RFC, he stood 5 feet 8¼ inches tall, weighed 138 lbs (9st 12lbs) and was described as having "Good" physical development. He was immediately posted to Farnborough as an Air Mechanic 2nd Class and after a relatively short period of training he was sent to France on the 19th March 1916 to join his unit.

James was assigned to a Balloon Section and on the 1st July, he was promoted Air Mechanic 1st Class. He spent the next year with his section, which was engaged in deploying Observation Balloons over enemy territory, until in early September 1917 James was sent for infantry training with the 63rd Royal Naval Division. This was followed by a compulsory transfer at the end of the month to his new unit, the 16th (Chatsworth) Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment). He joined his new unit on the 7th October as part of a draft of 100 men and shortly afterwards, James was granted two weeks home leave on the 1st November when he returned to Hemel Hempstead to see his wife and children. This would prove to be the last time they would see James alive.

On his return to the Front, James moved with the Battalion into the Somme Sector and it was here in late March 1918 that he experienced his first serious action at the Battle of St Quentin. The Sherwood Foresters suffered 317 casualties in ten days of fighting and with little time to recover, went into action again at the Battle of the Lys in April. The outcome of this action devastated the Battalion to the extent that it was reduced to cadre strength along with the whole 39th Division and spent the rest of the war supervising instruction courses for American troops.

It was during the fierce fighting in April that James fell near Amiens. He was Killed in Action on Tuesday, 16th April 1918.

Following James’ death, Caroline was awarded a widow’s pension in 1918 totalling 29s 7d per week. This included 5s 3d for each of the three children until the age of sixteen. This equates to approximately £83 per week in today’s values. Caroline never remarried and she died in 1965 aged eighty-four at the home of their son Sydney who, like his father and grandfather, had been a "Bricklayer" for the whole of his working life.

James is Remembered with Honour on the Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France Panel 52 to 54.

He was 33 years old when he died.

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