Mercer, James Tadman

SON OF JOHN MERCER (1863-1928) & HANNAH TADMAN (1871-1945), OF 36, SHAW STREET, HOLDERNESS ROAD. ONE OF EIGHT CHILDREN. HE HAD FIVE BROTHERS AND TWO SISTERS. FOUR SONS WERE KILLED DURING WW1.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. Private, JAMES TADMAN MERCER 27046. Born February 1889, James was the eldest of eight children to John Mercer (1863-1928) and Hannah Tadman (1871-1945), of 12 Barnsley Street, Hull. A Lighterman before the war, he enlisted on 22nd August 1916 at Hull City Hall. He married Annie Elizabeth Rimmington, at St.Mark’s Church, on 7th October 1916, but the couple’s time together was all too brief. James sailed for the trenches of France in January 1917. On the 17th April 1917 Annie gave birth to their only child, a daughter called Minnie, born 17th April 1917. Wounded in the head in July 1917, James came out of the line to recover and before his return took ten days leave which appear to be the only brief hours he got to spend with his family. He returned to France early in September and joined the 10th Battalion. James Tadman Mercer was captured by the Germans having been wounded during the Spring Offensive and abandoned to their mercy by his hastily retreating unit. Taken to the Military Hospital at Gent by his captors, James died of complications to a wound in his thigh on 11th September 1918. Horrible though it is to contemplate, I can only think that it was gangrene and infection that killed him; a slow and painful death. James is buried at Municipal West Cemetery in Gent; he was 29 years old. His army effects were returned to his widow Annie. On 6th June 1919, his widow Annie was awarded a weekly War Pension, of 20 shillings and five pence, for herself and her daughter. They were still living at 53 Jenning Street.
John & Hannah Mercer, at 36 Shaw Street, lost four sons. They were:-
L/Cpl, John Mercer, 1st EYR was killed at Ypres on 9th August 1915, aged 20.
L/Cpl, Alfred Shaw, 1st West Yorkshire Regiment, killed on the 27th May 1916, aged 25.
Pte, George Mercer, 1/5th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers was killed on the 10th April 1918 aged 18.
Pte, James Mercer, 10th EYR, died of wounds as a prisoner in Germany, on 11th September 1918, aged 29.