Name
James Albert Lyons
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/11/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
B/203285
Rifle Brigade
13th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 16B and 16C
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green, All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Pre War
Son of James and Belinda Rose (nee CARYL) LYONS.
His parents married 24 December 1891 at All Saints, Croxley Green, Herts. James died 1929 aged 65; Belinda died 1945 aged 79; both in the Watford district.
James Lyons was born in Croxley on 11 November 1893 and baptised 5 February 1893 at All Saints, Croxley Green. He was a chorister there and one of the Croxley Church Lads who enlisted at the outset of hostilities and joined the 16th King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
On the 1911 Census, a fitter’s apprentice aged 14, he still lived in Croxley, with his parents and six siblings.
In 1911 the Lyons family lived at 14 Dickinson Square and in 1918 they were still in the square at number 22. James’ father, James senior, was a papermaker at Croxley Mills and he and Rose Lyons had seven children. James senior and Rose were both Croxley born and married on 24 December 1891 at All Saints’ church. James junior was a fitter’s apprentice at the mill (but he is not listed on the Dickinson memorial) and a chorister at All Saints’.
There is an In Memoriam for James in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 16 November 1918.
Recorded as born and living then enlisting in Watford, the first two are more accurately thought to be Croxley Green.
Wartime Service
Rifleman James Lyons 13th Battalion Rifle Brigade (111th Brigade, 37th Division) died 14 November aged 23. Formerly C/301, 2nd King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
On that day, the battalion was attached to 63rd (Royal Naval) Division and successfully attacked Beaucourt trench, at the battle of the Ancre in the later stages of the Somme offensive.
Additional Information
There is an In Memoriam for James in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 16 November 1918.
Acknowledgments
Tanya Britton, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War, Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH online via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
