242239 Gnr. James Stirling British Army 122nd Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery from:Stockton-on-Tees (d.4th August 1917) James Stirling was my great uncle, being the youngest brother of my maternal grandmother, Catherine Cassidy, nee Stirling. He grew up in a boisterous hardworking family of Irish and Welsh decent. His mother, Bridget Stirling nee Donovan, moved from South Wales with her father, after her own mother disappeared, and they settled in the north east, in Stockton on Tees.
There is a shared industrial heritage between the areas, with iron works, mining and shipping being undertaken in both regions. Bridget was married to Daniel Stirling but was widowed young and I imagine James had to go out to work pretty young - he was a forker in the local ironworks. He was a single man who still lived with his mother before going to war, and helped her run her own business, an off licence in the Portrack area of Stockton.
The family story is that Bridget was desperate to keep him out of the war, and when he attested at Middlesbrough she was angry and frightened and they disagreed strongly. That infers that he had a choice about going so I am assuming he enlisted in 1916 before conscription or was in a reserved occupation or both. Anyway Bridget was so upset that to apologise, she sent him a pair of silver spurs at the front. We don't have them, so hope that he was buried in them perhaps. We also understood that he was a groom and primarily looked after the horses. He was killed in action on 4th of August 1917 at the age of 27 whilst serving in the 122nd Heavy Battery at the Third Battle of Ypres, and is buried in the Belgian Battery Corner cemetery, about a mile away from the Menin Gate: we understand from records at the cemetery, that there was a dressing station in a cottage nearby and many of the boys in the cemetery would have come from there.
We have had the opportunity to visit the grave this week as part of the centenary Commemorations - he is lying under a lime tree with a fellow RGA chap next door but one, who perished on the same day. Bridget never recovered from his death, but looked after her brother Kelly who was gassed on the western front, until her death in 1930.
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