HILL, James

James Hill was probably a pre-war regular soldier who had enlisted in the Worcesters and was serving in the 1st Battalion in 1914. They were stationed in India and returned to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in October. They were very active in Artois during the Spring and Autumn battles of 1915 and then prepared for the Somme. For the famous first day attack of the 1st of July they were at La Boisselle but the attack failed before they were brought forward. They transferred to Artois soon afterwards and held the trenches before the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Loos. It was a maze of old and new trenches and few attacks took place. Shelling and sniping, however, were constant and Private James Hill died of wounds on the 26th September. He is buried in Vermelles British Cemetery (V D 18) and commemorated on the Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.