Remembrance - The Yorkshire Regiment, First World War Private James Charles WATTS. 293 Close window to return to main page

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Private James Charles WATTS, 293.
Photo : Simon Beeston

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Private James Charles WATTS, 293.

5th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment. Killed 27 February 1916. Aged 40.
Born Beverley (Yorks), Enlisted Beverley. .
Buried MAPLE COPSE CEMETERY.

Photo and additional information provided by great grandson Simon Beeston.

"James Charles Watts was born in 1875 in Aldershot to an Army family and went on to be one of fourteen children, several who joined the services. Census records show him to move from Aldershot to Beverley via Sheffield. He married Rosa Butters in 1903 in Beverley and had two children, Charles (Simon Beeston's Grandfather) and Wilfred.
He had served in the East Yorks Regiment from 1891 to 1908 and then worked in a local tannery.
Judging by his low Battalion number he must have been in the local Territorials some time before the War started.
The Battalion Diary records that they were in the trenches in Sanctuary Wood, East of Ypres, at the time of his death, but a family story says that he was a devout Catholic and was trying to "recover" a cross from a church when he lost his life.

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