Name
James William Wigmore
1892/3
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/09/1917
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
353158
Royal Scots Regiment
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 11 to 14 and 162
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St Peter's Church Memorial, Ayot St Peter, St Peter's Church Roll of Honour, Ayot St Peter, We are not aware of any memorial in Ayot Green - see Ayot St Peter, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
James William Wigmore was born in "a London Parish, Not Known" (according to the 1901 Census) and baptised at Ayot St Peter Church, Nr Welwyn, Herts on 6 August 1893. His mother was named as Ellen Wigmore of Long Ditton, Surrey,
On the 1901 Census he was living with Charles and Mary Shepherd at Ayot Green and listed as their adopted son (N.B. they had no children of their own). He attended the village school next to the parish church and left to start work on 11 May 1906. His adoptive mother Mary died in 1902 and on the 1911 Census he was a Boarder living at Ayot Green with the King family and working as a labourer on a farm.
He became the foster son of Mrs E Lawrence of Ayot Green, Welwyn, Herts, probably after Mary Shepherd died.
When he enlisted he was working as a gardener at Brocket Hall.
Wartime Service
James 'joined the first local batch of Kitchener's Army' (source: Hertfordshire Express 19/02/1918) and initially served under Reg. No.12870 in the Hertfordshire Regiment or Bedfordshire Regiment.
He arrived in France on 30 July 1915 and is likely to be one of the 35 men who joined the Hertfordshire regiment in the field on 4 August.
He was wounded in the side by a bullet and returned to England where he stayed in various home camps before being sent back to France in August 1917. At some point he was transferred to the 12th Battalion, Royal Scots Regiment.
He was killed in action on on 20 September 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele. Having previously been listed as missing, the Hertfordshire Express reported his death in two separate articles published in February 1918.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £13 10s was granted to Elizabeth Lawrence as well as pay owing of £6 0s 4d. She was not granted a war pension as the pension card states she was "not in loco", (loco parentis) SDITGW has two contradictory records. One agrees with the CWGC the other suggests Royal Scots Regiment, 5/6th Bn. This man’s connection to the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment may be misleading. This combined regiment was not officially formed until 1919, but arguably the process began in May 1918 with the amalgamation of the remnants of Hertfordshire Regiment with those of the 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. When men died before 1919 it is likely that were officially still in one or the other of the individual regiments. In the absence of other information we are recording them as related to Hertfordshire, rather than miss such a relationship.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
www.ayotstpeter.com., Brenda Palmer
