Name
James T Oliver
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/20508
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 12 D and 13 B.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing in France.
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, St. Lawrence Church Memorial, Abbots Langley, Kings Langley Village Memorial
Biography
James Oliver was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in August 1916, where he was listed killed in action:
“James Oliver, 1st Middlesex, of Railway Terrace, was killed in action in France on July 15th”
The Oliver family lived in Berkhamsted (1881 Census), but by the time of the 1891 Census had moved to Railway Terrace, Abbots Langley. James’ father, Frederick Thomas Oliver, was employed as a Railway Signalman with the London and NW Railway. Frederick and his wife Ann had six children, three daughters and three sons. James was the youngest of the family.
The 1901 Census recorded that James, his elder brother Frederick, and his sister Mary, were all employed at a Paper Mill. James worked as a Factory-hand, whilst Frederick and Mary were Letter and Envelope Machinists respectively at the Factory. By 1911 only Frederick and James remained at home at 4 Railway Terrace with their widowed Mother.
Both boys joined up. Frederick enlisted with the Bedfordshires, and after a bout of diphtheria in 1917 served the rest of the War with the Labour Companies, and survived the conflict.
James was killed in action on the Somme on 15th July 1916 serving with the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. The battalion had spent a quiet period near Bethune in June 1916. The British Army was preparing for the next “Big Push” and on 1st July the Battle of the Somme started. The 1st Middlesex was held in reserve, but on the night of 13th July they were brought up to Meaulte, near Albert, and on the next day moved closer to the Front Line at the southern edge of Mametz Wood.
At 6.30 on the morning of 15th July the 1st Middlesex moved through the village of Bazentin le Petit, and attacked the enemy lines to the north of the village. The War Diary of the 1st Middlesex recorded that the battalion was heavily shelled and encountered heavy rifle and machine gun fire.
James’ body was not recovered and he was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial and also on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the Somme.
He was killed in action on the same day, 15th July 1916, as Thomas Lavender Seabrook died of dysentery in Salonika.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
