People on board

STOTT, James Edward

James Edward Stott was born in Brighouse, West Yorkshire in 1894 to Albert Stott and Mary Dwyer. According to the 1911 census eight children had been born but only the three youngest were alive at that stage, two having died earlier that year. Albert was a Farrier and Blacksmith and the family lived in Clifton, then Brighouse before moving to Leeds, where they were living in 1911. In that year, aged seventeen, James was working as a ‘Leather Splitter’. Albert died in early 1917, aged fifty-three.

James enlisted in the West Yorkshire Regiment (Number 37825), though his records do not show when. He was wounded in France in October 1917 and subsequently transferred to the Royal Defence Corps. In October 1918 he was with the 462nd Protection Company which was serving in Ireland. He was returning on leave to England when he travelled on the 10th of October on RMS Leinster.

James Stott and six other members of the 462nd Company lost their lives in the sinking. All their bodies were recovered and six were buried in the Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. James Stott’s body was not recovered until the 16th of November when it was washed ashore in Rigg Bay near Wigtown in south west Scotland. The Galloway Gazette reported that the funeral took place the following Wednesday to Sorbie Churchyard, when seven local soldiers, home on leave, acted as pallbearers. His mother and sister attended.