LANCE CORPORAL 30142 JAMES LISTER PETTY,10th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT.


LANCE CORPORAL 30142 JAMES LISTER PETTY,10th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 19th SEPTEMBER 1917 AGED 31


Born in the Little Horton district of Bradford James Lister was the son of Titus and Martha who lived on Fitzgerald Street. His father was a draper with a shop on St Georges Square and from an early age, James, worked in the shop as his assistant. The early death of his father meant that James would have to seek alternative employment and he became a travelling salesman with a firm of worsted merchants.

In December 1912 he married a local girl Fanny Wright and moved to Ilkley where they lived at a house known as Throstle Nest on South View Road (today Valley Drive) at its junction with Wheatley Lane where, the following year a son, James Donald, was born

James volunteered for the army in December 1915 under what was known as the Derby Scheme which allowed him to defer his actual call up until a later date. It was during the following year that James was told to mobilise with the West Riding Regiment, however, it seems that he sought to avoid army service by applying for an exemption. This involved going before a tribunal which would assess the validity of the applicants claim. We do not know the  details of James's case but we do know that the tribunal took a dim view of his argument. Indeed the Captain in charge of of the tribunal described James as "....exceedingly troublesome and a horrible snob". It appears that James then applied to join the Honourable Artillery Company and claimed that he could not, therefore, be posted to the West Riding Regiment. The truth of this claim was tested and found to be substantially false which drew the comment that James was "an absolute liar".

Whatever the merits of James case his application for exemption was dismissed and in January 1917 he was mobilised into the 10th Battalion West Riding Regiment. His training complete, James along with other men was sent to France and arrived at the base depot at Etaples on 25th May 1917. It appears that James remained in Etaples for nearly a month before arriving at the front on 21st June. Attached to the battalions 'A'Company it is clear that in spite of his reluctance to enlist James was not a poor soldier and within just three days was promoted to lance corporal.

The 10th West Ridings were due to take part in a major attack on the 20th September and in order to ease their entry into the front line a forward party was sent into the front line. James was chosen to undertake this important task, but German counter barrages hindered their progress and James was killed by an enemy shell.

It seems that his body was buried near to where he fell but subsequent fighting destroyed his grave. Today James Petty is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot and remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.

The photograph above shows the grave of his wife, Fanny, in Addingham. Cleary over 50 years later she still remembered her fallen husband




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