KIRKBY
KIRKBY James Sarginson
Died 3 May 1915 Age 24
Remembered Ypres Menin Gate Panel 12 Belgium
KIRKBY James Sarginson
Service Record
Sergeant 376/A King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment 2nd/5th Battalion.
The 1911 Census shows he lived at 93 Market Street with his parents Richard and Mary and his brothers Richard and Edgar and his sisters Jane and Mary
The Lancaster Observer of the 14th of May 1915 reported on page 5: "Kirkby J S Sergeant 5th Battalion King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment killed in action 3 May, 1915. Secretary of Carnforth F C, and Carnforth Cricket Club and a member of the church choir and Choral Society. First Non-Commissioned Officer in Carnforth to be killed.
Extract from the Battalion War Diary: 3rd May 1915 Frezenberg, Heavily shelled. C Coy in the morning sent to support Rifle Brigade. Lost heavily from shell fire and got held up. Proceeded on left on road. B Coy attached to East Yorks and York & Lancs in afternoon. Proceeded on right of road via Zonnebecke. Got close to trenches laid down and waited for dark. After dark ordered to dugouts as trenches were to be evacuated.
Lancaster Observer of the 14 May 1915 also reported "Private Tom Ryan writing to Mrs Watson of North Road, Carnforth, states that Sgt James Kirby had been killed and his brother Sgt H H Kirby wounded in the head. He also said that Private J Watson, Mrs Watson's husband had again been wounded in the right hand after being wounded in the head on Apr 13; he had only just returned to the firing line.
In a letter to Sgt Kirby's sister at 93 Market Street, Sgt W Simpson, whose home is at Crag Bank confirmed that Sgt Kirby had been killed; he had carried Jim back and buried him in the corner of a small churchyard.
A letter had been received from Sgt Kirby that, on the Sunday before he was killed they were to come out of the trenches and not going in again. Several interesting letters had been received from Sgt Kirby and published in the Observer. He was a prominent footballer and had figured prominently at half back for Lancaster, Carnforth and the Warton elevens. Writing from Ypres to Kirby's sister, Captain Evans said: " . . . . Sgt Kirby was killed whilst assisting in an advance by the Rifle Brigade who were in sore need of help. At the moment of his death he had been treating a wounded comrade; he had been hit in the neck by a shell and had died instantaneously. Colonel Lord Richard Cavendish has asked me to express his deepest sympathy. I cannot express to you any words which measure our sorrow at the loss of a true comrade, hero and friend. We laid him to rest in a soldiers grave in Verlorenbock; the Colonel said a service. It must be some consolation to you that he gave his life to save you all at home from the horrors of this sorrowing land".
The data is the editor's interpretation of documents from:
The National Archive
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Find My Past (this can be viewed free of charge in local UK libraries if you are a library member).
Ancestry.co.uk (this can be viewed free of charge in local UK libraries if you are a library member).
Everyone Remembered
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