b. 21/09/1890 Sunderland, Co Durham. d. 3rd Quarter 1947 Sunderland, Co Durham.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 08/11/1916 Bakaritsa, Archangel, Russia.
James was born in 1890 in Sunderland, the son of William and Dorothy Ann Henry. He was the fifth of their eight children, and they lived at 47 Silver Street. By the time of the 1911 Census, he was still living at home with his mother (his father had passed away), working as a Fireman on a Steam Tug. Little is known of his life after his Albert Medal action, though he was married in 1912 to Emily Armstrong.
AM CITATION:
On the 8th November, 1916, a series of fires and explosions occurred at Bakaritsa, Port of Archangel, on merchant ships and on the wharves. The S. S. ” Baron Driesen” had blown up at 1 p.m. and part of the S.S. ” Earl of Forfar ” forty minutes later. The latter ship, with a cargo of explosives, was on fire, and might have blown up at any moment, and explosions were continually taking place in the immediate vicinity. The ship was alongside the main fire on shore, and burning embers were constantly showered over her. Lieutenant Richardson, 2nd Engineer Watson, and, Able Seamen Henry and Thompson, of the Tug ” Sunderland,” nevertheless volunteered to board the ” Earl of Forfar ” and effected the rescue of a considerable number of wounded and helpless men who would otherwise have perished. They displayed the utmost .gallantry and disregard of their own personal safety in saving the lives of others.
BURIAL LOCATION: SUNDERLAND CEMETERY, SUNDERLAND, TYNE AND WEAR.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
