Name
James Edwin Hallett
10 November 1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/08/1917
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
54957
Welsh Regiment
15th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARTILLERY WOOD CEMETERY
III. F. 2.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAT HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Leverstock Green Village Memorial, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
James Edwin Hallett was born on 10 November 1897 in Hunslet, Yorks, the son of James and Kate Ellen Hallett, and baptised at St Mary the Virgin Church in Hunslet on Boxing Day 1897. He was the eldest of three children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Queens Street, Chedworth, Gloucestershire, where his father was working as a Foreman Carpenter.
By 1911 they had moved to Leverstock Green, Herts where his father was the proprietor of a Grocer Shop and Post Office and James was a schoolboy. He attended the village school at Leverstock Green and left in 1910, at the age of thirteen, to be an apprentice to Mr Adam Chennells, a grocer at 31 High Street, Hemel Hempstead. Mr Chennells had been mayor in 1901-2 and was an Alderman on the town council for many years.
His parents later lived at 10 Albion Street, Aylesbury in 1919.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford in April 1915 and initially served in the Hertfordshire Regiment under reg. no. 4901. He was only 17 years 5 months at the time, which was below the legal age of 19 years for a soldier to serve overseas unless a parent gave permission. He trained with the Hertfordshire Regiment in Bury St Edmunds and left for France on 17 August 1916, then being transferred to the 12th Battalion, Sussex Regiment reg. no. G/15606, along with others from the Hertfordshire Regiment, to replace the losses during the Battle of the Somme.
On 5 November 1916 he was wounded, probably from shellfire, whilst making a road through Crucifix Corner near Thiepval, and was repatriated to England to recover. He returned to France in February 1917 and was again transferred, this time to 15th Battalion, Welsh Regiment.
He was killed in action during the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (part of 3rd Battle of Ypres otherwise known as Passchendaele) which began on 31 July 1917. CWGC records his death as 1 August 1917, however his parents believed it was on 31 July after receiving a letter from a soldier in the Yorkshire Light Infantry who helped bury James on the battlefield.
When his body was found by CWGC in 1919 he and others were exhumed and reburied at Artillery Wood Cemetery, Belgium. He now lies next to George Bates, also from Hemel Hempstead, who died on 3 August 1917.
He is also remembered on the grave of his grandparents in Leverstock Green churchyard, which says he was "killed in action in the battle of St Julien in France, 31 July 1917 aged 19 years".
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs K E Hallett, 10 Albion Street, Aylesbury, Bucks., ordered his headstone inscription: "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAT HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS". His father received a war gratuity of £10 and pay owing of £8 15s 3d. His mother received a pension, however the amount is unclear on the records. His brother George served with the Royal Navy in the latter part of the war, and survived.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, google.com/site/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, www.hemelatwar.org., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelheroes.com
