Biography

Family background

James Maurice Thirlwall was born in Kirk Deighton on the 19th December 1895, the son of James and Eleanor May Thirlwall. The family, including James Maurice was living in Kirk Deighton in 1901, having previously lived in Bilton. By 1911, the family had moved to Collingham, although James Maurice was not present on census night and we have not traced his whereabouts on that night.

Service record

James Maurice Thirlwall served in the Northumberland Fusiliers with a service number 32/306. He served in the 32nd, 13th, 20th, 18th and 14th Battalions of that regiment. Around May 1917 he was injured; the Wetherby News reporting:

This report would correspond well with an entry for No. 18 General Hospital at Camiers, France for M.Thirlwell, aged 21, with a service number of 32/306 who was transferred from sick convoy No. 24 Ambulance Train with ulceration of an old wound on his right leg. The record suggests that Private Thirlwell was originally treated at No. 43 Casualty Clearing Station at Arras on the 30th April 1917, was admitted for treatment on the 20th May and on the 10th June 1917 was passed to No. 6 Convalescent Depot. He had been serving with B company of 13th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers.

At some stage in the war, perhaps after this injury, James was transferred to the Leicestershire Regiment with a service number 43848.

After the war

After the war, James Maurice Thirlwall returned to Yorkshire and worked as a Railway Guard/Porter. He lived variously at Ripon and from 1926 until 1951 he appears on the electoral rolls at 18 Avenue Terrace, Starbeck, Harrogate. He appears on the 1939 register at the same address as a Railway Porter/Guard. In 1952 his name is on the electoral roll at Knaresborough Hospital on Stockwell Road, Knaresborough and he died there (11 Stockwell Road, Knaresborough) on the 19th November 1952.