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Bmdr. James Edward Mariutto
British Army 138th Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery
from:Dowgate Wharf, London
James Mariutto was one of the sons of Giovanni Mariutto, an Italian from Cavasso Nuovo, Udine, who came to London to run the company Diespeker & Co., on behalf of Luigi Oderico - they were specialists in mosaics and terrazzo. His mother was Sarah Matilda Webb, who came from Littlebury, Essex, and was in service in London, where she met Giovanni. James was born in Holloway, on 10th November 1893. In the 1901 Census the family were living at 45 Queen's Head Street, Islington.
In the summer of 1915, he was a Customs Officer, but then enlisted with the 138th Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery the Hampstead Heavies. He was allocated to the Sub B (right) section. After being in action around the area of Bethune, they were transferred to Ypres, and the Battery was located in what was left of the town, between the Cloth Hall and the Prison. As detailed in the War Diary, he received a bad shrapnel wound to the upper left leg over the night of 7th/8th June 1917, this was at the time that the Battle of Messines Ridge was in progress. After initial dressing, he was later repatriated via a casualty clearing station.
Following further treatment in the UK, he was sent to a Red Cross auxiliary facility, Adelaide Hospital, in Blackpool, Lancashire. This was a former small hotel, his wife-to-be, Gertrude Mary Daniel, was the daughter of the owner. They married in the second quarter of 1921 and had two daughters. The family name was changed to Marriott in the late 1920s.
James never fully recovered from his leg wound, but was initially able to gain employment with Blackpool Corporation, as a tram driver. After WW2, he was only able to work part-time, as an office cleaner. The couple moved to a sheltered ground-floor flat in 1974, from which time he was always in a wheelchair. He died at the end of 1980, in Rossall Hospital, Fleetwood.
