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CSM. James Reid
British Army Northumberland Fusiliers
from:Mansfield, Notts
My Grandfather James Reid was a Northumberland Fusilier. He was born in Byker near Newcastle in or around 1895. I have been told that he was a Sgt Major and fought at Passchendaele, surviving the war. All that I have of him is an early service photograph and his "swagger cane". After the war he failed to settle down into civilian life and in 1921 he left my grandmother and went off to Australia, landing in Freemantle. After this I have no trace of him at all.
I am not 100% sure that he was indeed a Sgt Major and I have no idea which battalion he belonged to, but now as a battlefield tour guide, I take the old man's stick back across to Passchendaele which is the home of Tyne Cot cemetery where there are many soldiers from the Northumberland Fusiliers buried.
Possibly much of the 'information' that I have is from "family history" and therefore unreliable and I would just love to be able to trace him and find the truth. Whatever happens, I am proud of the old man and those who served with him. We will remember them.
I have some information from Carolyn Scott who came across this record whilst trying to track down a bit more family info - "pretty sure it's our grandfather James Read who skipped off and left Grandma Mabel pregnant with your mum. The 'Omar' passenger list has his home address as 18 Commercial Road, Bykar, Newcastle-on-Tyne; occupation Steel Moulder. I remember Auntie Agnes telling me he left Mabel and went off with another woman and the last she heard he'd gone to Perth, Western Australia to work on the railroad. She also told me he joined the Army at age 14 and went off to fight in India and ultimately ended up as a S/Major, so we might find him in the military records too. It's a job and a half trying to track everyone down and obviously there are a lot of times, dates and places I don't have so I just keep having a 'stab in the dark' and hopefully, bit by bit, I'll be able to pull it all together and end up with a reasonably informative family tree. I also remember Auntie Agnes speaking of 'Grandma Barber' but can't for the life of me figure out who she was and where she fits in and of course, I only have one set of grandparents unless I'm able to find out who my father was. I'd probably get a lot more info if I paid for an annual subscription but money's tight so I'm going to check out the local library and see if I can get free access to various records there. I'll keep digging and see if I can get any info from Uncle Frank & Auntie Barbara next time we have a chat, mind you, I've already tried a couple of times and don't seem to get very far as Uncle Frank is a man of 'very few words' and Auntie Barbara's always so busy telling me about her work at the hospital and all her fund-raising etc., that I barely get a word in. I realise it's all a long time ago and it's not something they need to be interested in but they're really the last of the 'oldies' in the family who might be able to fill in some of the 'missing pieces'."
Mr J Read is listed on the UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, aged 33. Departure Date: 21 Sep 1923, Port of Departure: London, England. Destination Port: Fremantle, Australia. Ship Name: Omar
