At the time of the 1911 census James was a 21- year-old chemistry student. He was living at Durley Dene, Thackley, with his wine and spirits merchant father, George Henry Bromley Hewitt, his mother Anne and older brother George Arthur. It was a nine-roomed house and the family could afford a live-in domestic servant. The first we read of his war service is on 25 September 1914 when the Shipley Times & Express reported that that Jim Hewitt is named among a number of men from Idle who have ‘obeyed the nation’s call to arms.’ The next time the newspaper mentions him is on 12 April 1918 when we read: News has been received that Sec- Lieut James Gordon Hewitt, West

Yorkshire Regt, youngest son of Mr George B Hewitt of Durley Dene, Thackley, has been severely wounded. Joining the Bradford Pals he was an instructor under the Area Gas Officer, Middlesbrough District, Northern command, was gazetted sec-lieut before going to the front and was wounded on the right leg and thigh on 27th March. The second finger on his right hand was also taken off by a shell. Before the war he was a chemist under Dr Rawson with the British Wool and Cotton Dyers’ Association, Manchester. On 22 November, 11 days after the Armistice, the newspaper reported: The death took place last Thursday from pneumonia following

influenza at a convalescent home at Blackpool of Sec-Lieut James Gordon Hewitt, West Yorkshire Regt, aged 29, youngest son of Mr and Mrs G B Hewitt of Durley Dene, Thackley, and husband of Mrs Hewitt of 16 Ambleside Avenue Bradford. He enlisted at the outbreak of the war as a private in the Bradford Pals. He was educated at the Bradford Technical college and previous to the war, he spent about two years in Germany, learning the business of a dyer’s chemist. While taking part in some very desperate fighting just outside Arras on 23rd March last, he was hit with shrapnel in several places and even when being rescued by a comrade he was again struck by fragments. For a long time his condition seemed hopeless and his recovery was regarded by the medial staff of

the Sheffield Hospital as one of their best achievements. The funeral took place at Undercliffe Cemetery on Monday. The cortege proceeded from Durley Dene to the Idle Parish Church where a service was conducted by the Rev W T Forster, who also officiated at the grave. Military honours were accorded. The coffin, covered with a Union Jack, was borne on a gun carriage supplied by the Army Service Corps and in charge of Lieut Seymour. Lieut Meates and Lieut Baldwin, Officers of the 1st Volunteer Battn of the Prince of Wales’s Own West Yorkshire Regt, were the beaters and a firing party was supplied by the same battalion. The blinds of the houses along the route from the house to the church were drawn as a mark of respect.