Rifleman 50608 James Royle

James Royle was born in the June quarter of 1898 in Middleton, Lancashire (a mill town between Manchester and Rochdale).  He was the second son of Jehu James Royle (his first name is transcribed as John on many records) and his wife Alice (née Seddon), who married in 1886.  His father was born in Middleton, and his mother in Bolton.  They had ten children, two of whom died young. James had older siblings Alice, Bessie, Clara, Harry, and Annie, and younger siblings John William and Maggie. Twins John and William, born in 1900, died in infancy.

In 1901 the family is living at 93 Mane (sic) Road (possibly Heywood Old Road), Bowlee, Middleton. 

The 1911 census gives their address, probably the same residence as ten years previously, as 93 Bowlee (a village on the outskirts of Middleton).  His father is 49, an insurance agent, his mother is 47.  His older siblings are all employed as calico workers: Alice 23, Bessie 22,  Clara 21, Harry 18, and Annie 16.  James is 12, John 9, Maggie 6, at school.

He enlisted in Bury, as Private 50608, 19th Bn, King’s Liverpool Regiment.  The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he enlisted in late 1916, when he would have been 18 years old, and was transferred to the 2/6th Bn. K.L.R.  “The History of the 2/6th (Rifle) Battalion "The King's" (Liverpool Regiment) 1914-1919” by Capt. C.C.E. Wurtzburg, M.C. (Project Gutenberg), gives the date of his joining the unit as 14th June 1918.  At this time the battalion was in the line northeast of Gommecourt.  He was wounded in action, date not known. 

The battalion was involved in breaking the Hindenburg Line in the Battle of the Scarpe in late August and the Drocourt-Quéant Line in early September.

On 1st September the battalion took Riencourt, capturing 170 prisoners and 13 machine guns, incurring casualties 20 killed and 98 wounded.  Two men were wounded by a high velocity gun on 6th September at Hendecourt. On the 7th they moved to trenches at Inchy.

On September 11th two other K.L.R. battalions attempted to establish posts on the Canal du Nord, which  stands roughly north and south about 1,000 yards east of Inchy. The ground had been excavated to a great depth, and very large banks constructed, but the canal had not been finished and contained no water. It was a formidable obstacle, being 20 feet deep in places, though the embankment had been pierced in places for roads and tram-lines.  The attempt to establish posts proved unsuccessful, and at 10.15 p.m. our "C" Company was pushed forward.

At 12.55 a.m. on September 12th we were warned that as many as three companies might be required to form a defensive flank north-east of Mœuvres. At 3.30 a.m. "A" Company was ordered forward with instructions to form platoon posts in Cemetery Trench, and to gain touch with the 170th Brigade on the right. It was now nearly daylight, and the company experienced the greatest difficulty in gaining its position, as there was no cover, and touch was not obtained with the 170th Brigade. At 6 p.m. the enemy counter-attacked on the Inchy—Mœuvres line, and "A" Company, finding itself being outflanked, after hard fighting was obliged to withdraw. In the course of this movement one officer, and seven men were killed, and twenty-one men wounded.

James died of his wounds on 13th September 1918 and now rests in Sunken Road Cemetery, Boisleux-St. Marc, 5 miles south of Arras. He was 20 years old.

Boisleux-St. Marc was occupied by Commonwealth troops in March 1917 following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. The 20th Casualty Clearing Station was established at Boisleux-au-Mont in June and the 43rd in November, but both had left by the end of March 1918. From April to almost the end of August part of Boisleux-St. Marc was once again in German hands. In September, October and November, six Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Boisleux-au-Mont for shorts periods. Sunken Road Cemetery was called at one time "Boisleux-au-Mont British Cemetery". It was begun by the hospitals in May 1917 and used until July when it began to be shelled. Four burials were made in March 1918 and it was completed the following September and October. The cemetery contains 416 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, two of them unidentified, and four German war graves.

A War Gratuity of £8 went to his father, who was awarded a pension (amount unknown).

It is not known when his mother died.

In 1939 his widowed father, now 77 and retired, is living with married daughter Alice at 28 Heywood Road, Bowlee, Middleton.

John James Royle died in Middleton in 1950, aged 88.