BORN YORK 1890. RESIDENT IN YORK. ENLISTED IN HULL. A PROFESSIONAL SOLDIER, SERVING IN THE 1ST EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT WHEN WAR BEGAN. KILLED IN ACTION, AT SERRE, ON 13/11/1916. LEFT WIDOW, MRS ANN E (NEE MABB). HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS BROTHERS, JOHN, ANTHONY, THOMAS, ANNIE, ELLEN AND ROSE.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JAMES McDONALD 12/800. Born in York, but the combination of a common name and war records destroyed in The Blitz means the trail goes cold there. I know he travelled to Hull to enlist at City Hall in the Autumn of 1914 and that he joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. Beyond that all I can tell you is that his next-of-kin is listed as a brother, John, suggesting his parents were already dead; and that he was killed in action on 13th November 1916 in the rain, mud and mist of Serre during the last desperate action of the Somme campaign and that his body was never recovered. James is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to those who lost their lives on that sector of the line yet have no known grave.
McDonald, James
First name:
JAMES
Military Number:
12/800
Rank:
Private
Date Died
13/11/1916
Place died:
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Age:
26
