Chimes James Henry 1891-1959

James Henry Chimes

1891-1959

Father Nm: Thomas Chimes 1865

Mother Nm: Eliza Blencowe [81] c 12.2.1865 Mixbury

Marriage Dt:1918 St.Leonard,  Scarcliffe Derbyshire to Dorothy May Green registry Office recorded also at GRO Mansfield Notts.

K comments: Brothers Frank Louis and Harry William served with the 103 Siege RGA and 2nd, 11th and 1/5th Bn’s Lancashire Fusiliers respectively in WW1

Spouse comments: Catherine H. Dorothy May Green b. 29 May 1894

Children. Charles A 1925.

Born 20 June 1891

1901 Census

First name(s)	Last name	Relationship	Marital status	Gender	Age	Birth year	Occupation	Birth place
Thomas	Chimes	Head	Married	Male	46	1855	Carter On A Farm	Evenley, Northamptonshire, England
Eliza	Chimes	Wife	Married	Female	36	1865	–	Mixbury, Oxfordshire, England
James Henry	Chimes	Son	Single	Male	9	1892	–	Mixbury, Oxfordshire, England
Frank Louis	Chimes	Son	Single	Male	7	1894	–	Mixbury, Oxfordshire, England
Amy Mabel	Chimes	Daughter	Single	Female	5	1896	–	Mixbury, Oxfordshire, England
Alice Elizth	Chimes	Daughter	Single	Female	3	1898	–	Mixbury, Oxfordshire, England
Harry William	Chimes	Son	Single	Male	2	1899	–	Mixbury, Oxfordshire, England

1911 Census 

Farm Servant Hilcote House, New Lane Hilcote, Blackwell, Nottinghamshire. Brother Frank with James no definite occupation in the household.

Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derbys)

WW1

Chimes James Henry, 1891, Mixbury, Private 31428, 17th and 9^th BN’s Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derbys) Regiment.

1915

James initially joined the 17th Battalion Sherwood Foresters which was formed at Nottingham on 1 June 1915 by the Mayor and a Recruiting Committee. This suggests the earliest date at which he joined up was after mid-1915. We also know from 1918 Absent voter and medal records that he was with the 17th for all of the war. In 1918 in must have tried to become an RAF serviceman as in the absent Voters list he is listed as part of Air Corps Cadets.

• The 17th Sherwood Foresters (Welbeck Rangers) were part of 117th Brigade in 39 Division.

1916

• 7 Mar. Disembarked at Le Havre and travelled by train to Steenbecque billets arrived 9th March.
• 13 Mar. Marched to Estaires then onto Sailly next day.
• 1-6 Apr. Marched to Busnettes then onto Bethune and then Annequin
• 10-15 Apr. Move into trenches at Auchy. Casualties 4 killed as per CWGC and 9 wounded.
• 15 Apr. Relieved to Bethune
• 16 Apr. Marched to Hingette., 23 April marched to new area Le Touret.
• 27 Apr-1 May and 5-9 May. Trenches at Festubert. Casualties first shift 3 OR’s wounded⁴. Casualties second shift 3 killed^4,5. One man wounded⁴

  

• 21 -25 May and 30 May- 3 Jun. Trenches Givenchy.
  • 21-25 May. Casualties in this first shift high with 7 men killed and 29 men wounded⁴.
  • 30 May-3 Jun. Casualties in second shift 4 men killed and 11 men wounded⁴.
• 11-30 Jun. Trenches Festubert. See positions of 27 April. After a very long shift casualties were 12 men killed and 33 wounded⁴.

Note: The massive Battle of the Somme began on 1 July. In the planning of this major offensive the 17th Bn. Sherwoods was placed in the Reserve Army and while the 17th faced combat operations and suffered many casualties during this period of 1916 they were not in the lead attack of the main thrust of the battles hence operations were limited in scope as described below. The Reserve Army fought on the northern flank of the Fourth Army during the battle and became the Fifth Army on 30 October.

• • 1-15 Jul. Trenches Festubert. see map above
    • 3 Jul. A Trench Raid conducted in conjunction with 16th Bn. Rifle Brigade.Casualties for the period 1-4 July were 10 men killed⁵.
  • 16-24 Jul. Relieved to billets Richebourg after very long spell in trenches
  • 1-7 Aug. Givenchy. The raid on “Ducks Bill Crater”  The 17th Bn. lost 28 men killed mostly on 1 Aug but some recorded until 7 Aug.. WD records 8 killed, 122 missing  and 43 wounded.
  • 7 Aug. Essars
  • 12 Aug. Route march to new billets at Orlencourt stayed there until 24 August.
  • 24-31 Aug. Marched to Ligny-St-Flochel and then on a train to Bouquemaison and on to Doullens for the night. 25 Aug Marched to Vauchelles-les-Authiie and on 28 Aug. marched to Betrancourt. Finally on the 31st the Bn. moved to Vitermont.
  • 2 Sept. Beaumont Hamel. From War Diary “Battalion now ready to take part in the 2nd Offensive on the Somme. Battalion moves into trenches as mentioned in the aforementioned Operation Order which are situated 1500 yards due South of the Village of Beaumont-Hamel and about 3,000 yards North-West of Thiepval.
  • 3 Sept. Somme Operations. 5.10 a.m. Battalion move to attack under Artillery Barrage at 6.0 a.m. Message received that we have occupied FIRST LINE of GERMAN TRENCHES.At 6.10 a.m. Message received that the enemy’s 2nd LINE is strongly held with Machine guns and that our Casualties are very heavy and reinforcements are urgently needed.At 7.15 a.m. 2 Companies of K.R.R. Corps. move up to reinforce. The Action is against us, the enemy being very Strong in Artillery and Machine guns, and at 2.0.p.m. orders are despatched for all to withdraw to our trenches.At 7.30 p.m. the Battalion remaining, withdrew to a Hill-side at MAILLEY-MAILLET WOOD for the night.Our casualties are very heavy.”At 5 p.m. the Battalion moves into Hutments at BERTRANCOURT.
    Casualties in yesterdays action as follows:-
    KILLED. MAJOR. G. STOLLARD, CAPTAINS R.G. HOPEWELL, S.F. BROOKFIELD, F.C. SINGLETON, G.P. LITTLEWOOD. WOUNDED. CAPTAIN’S F.R. TURNER and R.S. WIGHT. LIEUT. B.J. ROSS. 2nd LIEUT. W.N. BIRKIN, E.P. ACRILL-JONES, T.C.NUGENT, J.W. SALSBURY. MISSING. LIEUT. B.F. BUCK.
    WOUNDED and MISSING. CAPTAIN H.V. WALTERS, 2ND LIEUT. M.A. ELLISSEN.
    TOTAL 15.
    OTHER RANKS. KILLED. 59
    WOUNDED. 155
    MISSING. 221
    WOUNDED at DUTY. 1
    TOTAL 436
  • 4 Sept. Bertrancourt. The WD states “Our casualties are very heavy.”At 5 p.m. the Battalion moves into Hutments at BERTRANCOURT.
    Casualties in yesterdays action as follows:-
    Officers13 killed
    Officers wounded and missing .2
    OR’s.  59 killed
    155 wounded
    221 missing
    wounded at duty. 1
    TOTAL 456
  • The deaths recorded by the CWGC for the 3rd September total 145 men killed 
  • 12-19 Sept. Trenches just south east of Beaumont Hamel. Casualties 2 killed 4 wounded.
  • 21-30 Sept Trenches just west of Serre.. Casualties 2 men killed 7 wounded.
  • 1 Oct. Message from Commanding Officer.

 

• 5-10 Oct. Trenches and attack on Schwaben Redoubt.
  • 5-7 Oct trench bombarded
  • 9 Oct In conjunction with 16th Sherwood’s the Bn. conduct an attack on Schwaben Redoubt. While penetrating the enemy defences the attack was called off and retreated to original line.
  • Casualties
    • 5-7 Oct 8 men killed⁵.
    • 8-10 Oct 26 men killed⁵.
    • In addition 75 men wounded 1 man missing⁴.(may be CWGC numbers above)
• 20 Oct The Bn In trench position as above were attacked by enemy and moved to dug outs south of Theipval . The war diary  reports on the 21 Oct. “In the last four days 4 Officers wounded 17 other ranks killed and 41 other ranks wounded”
• 31 Oct. A bombing party from the battalion surprised and took an enemy outpost. Total death toll for the month was 64⁵.
• 1-16 Nov. Periods in the same trenches as October, billets at Senlis. The Division as a whole made gains this month capturing Schwaben Redoubt finally and in doing so took 3000 POW’s . The battalion was involved only in supporting this battle of Ancre.

  

• 17 Nov. The Bn. leaves the front line and via a train journey to St Omer goes into training camp at Tettinghem where it stays until 21 Dec.
• 22 Dec. To Flanders and the  Ypres Sector.The Bn entrains for Poperinghe and onto Station Ypres marched to Canal Bank (Canal de Lyser) and relieves the 1/1st Cambridge Regt. at Canal Bank.

1917

• Jan. Christmas 1916 and half of January was spent in trenches in the Canal Bank area of Ypres. Billets were at Brielen. 16 January was designated the Battalions Christmas day and they also went to Camp ‘C’ for a few days rest. The camp was  east of Poperinghe in an area called De Galgebossen today . On the 25 January the battalion returned to the front line in trenches in the Wieltje Sector west of Zonnebeke.
• 3-8 Feb. and 9-13 Feb. Trenches Railway Wood Sector As per the map above on 3 Feb the Bn went to front line at map ref. I 11 then after a spell there the battalion moved to map ref I 9 (as Brigade support) on the 6 February. 7-8 February in Ypres billets. Casualties for the period 2 killed 3 wounded⁵.
• 9- 12 Feb . To the front line trenches at I 11. Casualties 1 killed 16 wounded.
• 26 Feb Travel by train to the Hooge Sector and take up position in trenches relieving the 13 Durham LI.

• Mar. Spells in the trenches through March in Hooge sector with rests at Ypres, Montreal and St Lawrence Camps.
• Apr. Mostly in working parties.
• May Continued working parties on Railways until 15 May when the Battalion returned to the trenches west of Zonnebeke.
• 24-31 May. At rest Canal Bank.
• 1 Jun. Back in the trenches in the Wieltje sector.Spells in the trenches at Hill Top (map ref C15-C22) result in 13 deaths between 17-24 Jun mostly due to heavy shell fire. The Bn move back to Canal Bank at map ref C25 and here sustain more casualties. The total casualties reported by war diary for the month is 15 killed and 62 wounded .
• 1 Jul.Move behind the lines into France.The Bn. route march 12 kms west to Poperinghe and entrain for Watten then a another march to Moulle north-east of St Omer.
• 20 Jul. Return to Flanders.
• 29 Jul.The Battle of Pilckem Ridge. Move into previously held Canal Bank position (map ref C25) in Wieltje Sector.This in preparation for the Battle of Pilckem Ridge and the following big Allied Push towards Zonnebeke.
• 30-31 Jul. Advance to the Steenbeek. Objectives successfully obtained the Bn.causing many enemy casualties. The 17th Bn. suffered the following casualties; 47 Killed , 320 wounded, 12 missing , 8 gassed and 1 man with shell shock⁴.
• 1-5 Aug. On obtaining the objective the Bn. manned the Steenbeek trenches, defending this newly taken trench plus counter attacks caused a further 30 men killed before the Bn. was relieved on the 5 Aug. by the 1/4th Berks Regt.
• 14-19 Aug After a rest at Le Rouklos Hille the Bn. once again into the trenches this time south-west of Ypres near to Zwarteleen. Casualties from heavy artillery on this shift 8 men killed.
• 20-21 Sept. The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge. The Bn again was succesful in reaching its objectives and casualties were lighter that the previous battle. 33 men killed in the battle⁵.
• 27-28 Sept.The Battle of  Polygon Wood. The Bn. part of 117th Bde. was called upon on the 26 Sept. to support the 116th Bde. and help consolidate the trench position under heavy shell fire. Casualties 14 men killed⁵.
• Oct-Nov. Two spells in the trenches at Tower Hamlets few casualties but relatively quiet period.
• Dec. Beginning of the month the Bn. moved to the Calais Sector Lottinghen, France for a rest and training . By the end of the month returned to the same trenches of Ypres.Salient.

1918

• Jan. In the trenches at the Steenbeek. Some casualties.
• 12 Feb.The 17th BN. is disbanded in France and it seems at this point James may have been transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (63 APCS- 2nd Corps) The evidence for this an 1918 Absent Voters list for his home address of the  Maltings, Radclive cum Chackmore,Bucks. James is said to be with the  63 APCS Pte 2nd Corps. Whatever this training/transfer represented it was not for long.

1919

• In the 1919 Absent Voters list for home address Maltings,Radclive cum Chackmore,Bucks, James is a L/Cpl with the 9th Sherwood Foresters.

Sources

1. Absent Voters Lists 1918-1919
2. http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/
3. The History of the Lancashire Fusiliers 1914-1918 
4. 17th Battalion War Diary
5. Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database

Medals

After The War

1939 Census

4 Hardwick Avenue , Blackwell R.D., Derbyshire, England

IRST NAME(S)	LAST NAME(S)	DOB	SEX	OCCUPATION	MARITAL STATUS	SCHEDULE	SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER
	James Henry	Chimes	20 Jun 1891	Male	P? Lengthman Engineer Maintenance	Married	139	1
	Catherine H D M	Chimes	29 May 1894	Female	Unpaid Domestic Duties	Married	139	2
	Charles A	Chimes	13 Sep 1925	Male	At School	Single	139	4

Death 1959 Age 68 Years

Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

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