Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire Regiment) (“Green Howards”), 10th and 6th Battalion, Service no. 15581 and 1/40640
Born: 1894. Died: October 1926
Story
James was baptised in Kippax on 23rd December 1894, and was the son of Edward Firth and Mary Mackintosh. His father passed away in 1902, and James worked as a coal miner, living on School Lane, Kippax. James enlisted into the Yorkshire Regiment, known as the Green Howards, and he transferred from the 10th to the 6th Battalion, and served in France from 11th September 1915. James was injured in the Battle of the Somme on 3rd July 1916, when he was wounded in the leg. It was reported at the same time that Harold Farrar from the Medical Corp was also injured at the same time, when he was hit in the arm by shrapnel whilst trying to help a wounded soldier back to the trenches, but it is not known whether the wounded soldier was James. James was sent to Nottingham Hospital, where he was said to have been recovering nicely. However, his older brother Arthur Firth was killed in the Battle of the Somme a little later on 22nd July 1916. James joined up with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, as a rifleman, and was discharged injured on 17th May 1918. His older sister, Lily Firth, had married George Henry Harris in Kippax on 14th June 1913, and George also served in the Royal Medical Corps.
After the War, James returned to School Lane, and married Annie Dennison on 27th December 1920 in Woodlesford, and they had a son Robert Firth in 1922. Living at Cliff Crescent, James passed away at the age of 31. He was buried in Kippax on 16th October 1926.
Below: Green Howards cleaning their rifles, August 1917.
Kippax Roll of Honour 