James Jolly

Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial 1914-1918 | Index

James Jolly was born in Blackpool on 17 July 1894 and baptised on 2 September at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Church Street.

Sea View, Cleveleys circa 1908

He was the third of four children born to James Jolly senior and his wife Alice Robinson who had married on 11 July 1888 at St. John's. James senior was born in Carleton in 1862, the son of Thomas Jolly, a wheelwright. Alice was born in 1860 at Barnacre, near Garstang a farmer's daughter. They made their home at 55 George Street, Layton.

Their first child, Thomas Henry, was born on 7 February 1889 and baptised at St. John on 24 March but sadly he died at the age of 9. Lilian Mary was next to be born on 17 January 1891 and baptised on 1 March. Then after James junior's birth, John Rowland was born on 22 February 1898 and baptised on 24 April.

The three older children attended St. John's Church of England School before the family moved to 2 Sea View, Cleveleys (now 11 North Promenade) around 1900. The Census taken on 31 March 1901 records James senior as a joiner, employing others. No occupation is given for Alice but in the next Census dated 2 April 1911, when the Jolly family were still as the same address, she is shown as a boarding house keeper. James junior was an errand boy for the Fleetwood Co-operative Society grocery store.

James had become a grocer when he enlisted as Pte. Jolly, 12488, in the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in Fleetwood on 29 August 1914. He served on the Home Front until 16 July 1915 when he was sent to France with the 7th Battalion, and shortly after was promoted to acting Lance Corporal on 26 July.

On 27 August 1916 James was transferred to the 56th Company of the Machine Gun Corps and promoted to Sergeant. James was killed in action on 13 November 1916. He was aged 24 and unmarried.

Sgt. James Jolly, 23294, 56th Company, Machine Gun Corps is buried in Plot 1, Row A, Grave 46 in Grandcourt Road Cemetery, Grandcourt, Somme, France. He is remembered on a plaque at St. Andrew's Church, Cleveleys. By the end of the war, the Jolly family had moved to Briarfield, Briar Road, Thornton and James senior had become a joiner employed by the Cleveleys Hydro.