James Hind

Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial 1914-1918 | Index

James Hind

James Hind was born in 1888 in Longton, Preston and baptised at All Saints, Preston on 11 March. He was the fifth of seven children born to James Hind senior, an engineer, and his wife Jane Hindman who married at All Saints on 18 January 1880.

James and Jane's first child, Ann, was born on 24 March 1880 when they lived with Jane's family at 4 Isabella Street, Preston. Ann died before 3 April 1881, when the Census was taken and the family had moved to 10 Lady Place. Son Richard was the next born on 12 June 1881 but he too died in infancy. A third child, Randolph, was born on 6 January 1884 when the family lived at 22 South Meadow Lane.

Four more children were born after the family had moved to Primrose Cottage, Marsh Lane, Longton: Elizabeth on 25 May 1886, James junior on 29 January 1888, Margaret on 6 June 1890 and Thomas on 13 January 1896. James senior had retired before the next Census was taken on 31 March 1901.

Randolph became a pupil teacher and both he and James had left the family home at Primrose Cottage before the next Census was taken on 2 April 1911. Randolph moved to Solihull where he was a school master working for the Birmingham City Council. James became a plumber and was living with the family of his aunt Alice Whitby (nee Hindman) at 3 Porchester Place, Victoria Road, Cleveleys and working for his uncle John Whitby.

Both sons married soon after: Randolph to Maud Bradley in Aston, Warwickshire in 1912 and James to Edith Mary Dale, the following year. Edith was born on 26 April 1888 at Deeping St. Nicholas, Lincolnshire, the eldest of seven children of George Dale, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Robinson who married on 17 October 1887 at the Church of St. Nicholas, Deeping St. Nicholas. Edith came to work in our area as cook to Rev. Thomas Everard Healey of The Bungalow, Cleveleys. Rev. Healey had been appointed in May 1907 to the curacy of the new parish of Cleveleys, formed partly from Thornton and partly from Bispham parishes. In April 1911, he became the first Vicar of St. Andrew's after that Church was built in 1910.

James and Edith had two daughters: Kathleen was born on 22 August 1913 in Blackpool and Margaret on 29 December 1916 in Lincolnshire after the family had moved to 51 The Gatehouse, Spalding. James's war service record has not survived but we know that he was sent to fight in the Ypres Region and was killed in action on 6 July 1917 at "Hill 60". He was aged 29. Sapper James Hind, 178260, 102nd Field Company, Royal Engineers is buried in Grave A42 at Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) Cemetery, Zillebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. James is remembered on a plaque at St. Andrew's Church, Cleveleys.