2/1st Battalion, Suffolk Yeomanry (Duke of York’s Loyal Suffolk Hussars)
James Pocklington was born in late 1895 at Amber Hill, which is approximately six miles north, north west of Boston in Lincolnshire. He was one of six children (four boys, two girls) born to farmer Joseph William Pocklington and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Goose).
At the time of the 1911 Census the family was located at Boston West and James was recorded as being ‘a scholar’. A report in the Boston Guardian of 22 December 1917 shows him amongst the pupils of Boston Grammar School who had died in the service of their country and he is commemorated on the School’s war memorial.
Unfortunately, no Army Service Record has survived for James but upon discharge from the Army he was issued with a Silver War Badge (SWB), indicating discharge from military service due to illness or wounds. SWB records indicate that he enlisted into the Suffolk Yeomanry (and was given the number 1832) on 11 October 1915 and served, entirely in the UK, until discharged on 23 September 1916. During this time the 2/1st Suffolk Yeomanry were mainly located in Essex.
James Pocklington died from pulmonary tuberculosis at Painswick Sanatorium on 5 November 1917, aged 22. How he came to become a patient of that sanatorium is not known, as there is no obvious connection with the town or Gloucestershire. He was buried in Painswick Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave.
Besides being commemorated on his school’s war memorial he is also named on the Boston War Memorial, Bargate and that in Brothertoft Church.
Evidence suggests that his brother Joseph (born 1898) also served in the Great War, with the Lincolnshire Regiment and went to France in March 1915: he survived the war.
Researched by Graham Adams 9 March 2018