PRIVATE 205387 JAMES HAIGH 2/4TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 26TH MARCH 1918 AGED 29 YEARS.


PRIVATE 205387 JAMES HAIGH 2/4TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 26TH MARCH 1918 AGED 29 YEARS.

As the German Army continued to batter the British lines in the area around the River Somme, further north the 2/4th West Riding Battalion was holding the line to the north west of Arras. On the 25th March 1918 the battalion was ordered south to help halt the rapid advance of the German Army. Marching through the night they arrived at the small village of Bucquay where they dug in and prepared for the inevitable enemy onslaught. In the early hours of the following morning the German artillery began to bombard the positions occupied by the West Riding battalion causing many casualties amongst the defenders. Soon German infantry were encountered and in the violent battle that followed the defenders were gradually forced to give ground. 29 year old James Haigh was one of those defenders who was killed during the violent battle.
Born in 1889 at 128 Main Street, Burley in Wharfedale, James was one of five children born to Samuel Haigh, a wool comber, and his wife Jane. Upon leaving school he joined the North Eastern Railway and for a time was employed as a porter at Gateshead. Later he returned to Wharfedale and on 13th June 1913 he married Edith Parish. James and his wife came to live in Ilkley at 7 Belvoir Terrace where the following year a daughter, Florence was born. By now he had obtained employment as a porter in the towns’ railway station.
James was conscripted into the army in 1916 and arrived in France in late 1917 when he was initially posted to the 2/6th Battalion, West Riding Regiment and later to the 2/4th Battalion. 2nd Lieutenant S R Bell wrote to Edith, to inform her of her husband’s death.“I deeply regret to have to announce the death of your dear husband Private J Haigh who was killed in action on March 26th 1918. His death was instantaneous and by it I have lost a soldier for whom I had great admiration. His jovial spirit won for him high esteem from all who knew him, and all ranks join me in tendering our deepest sympathy in your sad loss.”
Private James Haigh has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.


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