2ND LIEUTENANT JAMES RUSSELL WHITTAKER. 6TH BATTALION KINGS OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY.


2ND LIEUTENANT JAMES RUSSELL WHITTAKER. 6TH BATTALION KINGS OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY. KILLED IN ACTION 28TH AUGUST 1916.



Records show that 24 year old 2nd Lieutenant James Russell Whittaker was killed in action on 29th August 1916, however, research shows that he was killed the previous day. James was the only son of John Whittaker who was the Conservative Party agent in the Otley Constituency and lived at 15 Alexandra Crescent. Both his parents died when he was quite young and hewent to live with a distant relative, George Whitfield, in Oswestry, Shropshire.

James attended Oswestry Grammar School and eventually joined Whitfields Auctioneers owned by his relative. In his spare time he was a well known sportsman in Oswestry and also a member of the Shropshire Territorial Battalion.

At the outbreak of the war instead of remaining with the territorials he chose to enlist in the Oswestry Pals company of a newly raised battalion, 6th Kings Own Shropshire Light Infantry.

The 6th KOSLI were sent to France in July 1915 with James who was now a sergeant. In March 1916 he obtained a commission and the following July was posted to the 6th Battalion Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. By coincidence another Ilkley officer, Martin Kenion Grey, was posted to the same company, although, it is unlikely that they knew each other before the war. At 4.45pm on the 28th August 1916 James, Martin and three other officers were sat in a dugout near Delville Wood, when it took a direct hit from a German shell, killing all 5 officers.

James was buried near to where he fell but after the end of the war his remains were laid in the British Military Cemetery at Delville Wood. He is also remembered on the war memorials in Oswestry and Ilkley

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