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Valentine James Anderson
British Army 12th Btn. Duke of Wellington's Regimet
from:Staffordshire
(d.7th April 1916)
My story goes back to 45 years ago. As a young boy in Staffordshire, my grandfather used to tell us about his brother, Private 20743 Valentine James Anderson, who was in the Army but died in the War. After a few years my family moved to Australia and I forgot about this story. Then in 1971 we went back to the UK but my family moved back to Western Australia. In my late twenties I started into looking into Val. He was the son of James and Ada Anderson from Little Bridgeford, Staffordshire. I started looking for records of his service. The first stop was the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Weeks later I had some information. The next stop was the family, but no luck because no one remembered him and there were no medals or photos, only a name, number and grave. Then come the computer age and the internet and I could access his records. He enlisted on 8th December 1915 and was posted to South Staffs no 20264; then he was posted to the 12th Labour Btn, West Riding Regiment on 25th March 1916, no 20743. He embarked for France on 1st April 1916 and disembarked on the same day. Valentine James Anderson died on the 7th April 1916 at Queen Alexandra Red Cross Hospital St.Malo, France of cerebral spinal meningitis. He was awarded the British war and victory medals.
As years have gone by a family member in England died and photos where found of my late great uncle. Sad to say my grandfather never got to see what I had found out about his brother. (My grandfather was in the Home Guard but that's another story.) Over the years, photos of Valentine James Anderson's grave have come to light, almost a 100 years this year. May he rest in peace.
