Story
James Browning was in the Army for four weeks before he was discharged after a medical examination. His service pension just records that he 'was not likely to become an efficient soldier.' James had attested in Poole in November 1915 and mobilised on 1 June 1916, joining the Labour Battalion of the Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire) Regiment at the age of 35. He had the regimental number of 24941. He was discharged on 29 June. The medical reason is not now known, though it is possible it was related to eyesight. What is known is that he was about 5ft 7ins, weighed 9st 2lb and had a 35ins chest. James was born in the hamlet of Rame in south-east Cornwall in the spring of 1881. He was the son of a Cornish-born coastguard, also called James, and his wife, Elizabeth. When James was nine they were living in the Coastguard station at Veryan. James had a brother, Richard, who was five years younger than him. James had been working as a barman when he joined up but had done other jobs before. By 1901 he had come to Poole and was a servant at the Branksome Hotel in Poole Road. His profession was recorded in the census of that year as 'Boots at hotel'. Eight years later he was to marry at Branksome All Saints Church on 16 April 1909. By then, James was a 28-year-old insurance collector (and his father was a Naval pensioner.) James's bride was Edith Louisa James who was several years older than him and had been born in Branksome. Her father, Jesse James, deceased, had been a gardener. Her mother, Emma James, had long worked as a laundress. Edith – known, it is believed, as Louisa in her childhood – had also worked as a laundress, with her mother, at the family home in Gas Works Road, Branksome. Two years after their marriage, James and Edith Louisa Browning were living at St Aldhelm's Institute in Branksome, where James was the caretaker. After the war, the couple lived at 14 Belmont Road, the same address they had been living at when James had first attested in 1915 and been put on the Army Reserve. Both James and Edith were registered as electors there in 1921, along with James's younger brother, Richard. Richard had also served in the Army having served in the Labour Corps. James, whatever his health issues, did not make it to old age. He died in Poole in the late summer of 1932 around the age of 51 and was buried on 27 September at Longfleet. He had been living at the time at The Yacht Club, Poole, suggesting he was still working in the catering and hospitality trade. By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, his widow Edith, who had been born on 19 December 1868, was living at 17 Kingston Road, Poole. Another woman also lived at that address. * Please contact us if you wish to suggest any additions or amendments.
Subdivision
- Royal Berkshire Regiment