Person

James Tait, a Derby Scheme volunteer who saw service with the 10th and 1st/8th Battalions, Durham Light Infantry before being wounded at Soissons in May 1918.

James Tait, born in Moor Row, Cumberland, attested his willingness to serve for the duration of the war on 13 December 1915, having been medically examined on 9 December. He was 27 and a half at the time, married and employed as a labourer although, perhaps surprisingly, his physical development was described as “poor”. He was posted into the Army Reserve the following day.

He was not finally mobilised until 14 August 1917, when he was posted for duty at Newcastle-upon-Tyne to ‘D’ Company of the 5th (Reserve) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. By this time he was employed as a miner. He was medically graded Class A. As part of his preparation for active service, he was vaccinated on 17 and 28 August 1917, and seen by the Oculist on 31 October, who recorded that no glasses were ordered and that he was fit for class ‘A’. He embarked for France on 22 December 1917, disembarking and being sent to ‘E’ Infantry Base Depot at Etaples the following day. Upon arrival he was posted, according to his Casualty Form, to the 5th Battalion, DLI (presumably from the context the 1st/5th, at that time serving with 50th Division). However, within three days, and presumably whilst still at Base Depot, he was re-posted, under Army Order 204/16, to the 10th battalion, whom he joined in the field on 27 December 1917.

At this time the battalion, having spent the autumn and winter at Passchendaele, was at Zudausques in the Pas-de-Calais, where they had spent much of the month resting and training. The whole division was out of the line, in keeping with the Christmas holiday. The battalion had suffered 110 other rank and 5 officer casualties during its stay in the Passchendaele sector, on top of heavy losses at Inverness Copse in August, and Private Tait was no doubt re-posted to help make up these losses. 

Having proceeded to ‘Edgehill’ near Beur-Somme on 2 January, the battalion occupied itself with further training and inspections amid the snow and freezing weather. Responding to a brigade order of 21 December, the battalion also took the opportunity, on 10 January, to reorganise its companies on a basis of four companies of four platoons each, just in time to receive a further order to reorganise on a three platoon per company basis on 15 January. Military activity was broken up by a range of competitions including cross-country runs, a brigade wiring competition (won by ‘C’ Company’s wiring team) and Army Rifle Association competitions at battalion, brigade and divisional level on 12, 16 and 18 January respectively, No.5 Platoon, ‘B’ Company winning the first two and coming second in the latter.

On 22 January the battalion moved out, arriving in Mesnil-le-Petit and Mesnil-St-Nicaise on 23 January. This was probably Private Tait’s first experience of the full devastation wreaked by war, the battalion war diary noting that they were moving through evacuated country with most of the villages “burnt out by the Boche”. On 26 January the battalion took over the line at Montescourt from the French 414th Regiment; this appears to have been a disappointment, the trenches being recorded as very muddy and needing fire-steps making. For Private Tait this was probably a relatively gentle introduction to trench warfare, with only desultory enemy shelling and some aerial activity recorded in the battalion’s war diary until it was relieved on 1 February.

In February 1918 there was a general reorganisation of the infantry component of the British Army to make better use of the dwindling stocks of manpower. This manpower crisis had affected many battalions in one way or another – the 10th battalion itself, for example, had received few reinforcements since September the previous year, after the fighting at Inverness Copse. The chosen solution was to move from a twelve battalion per division structure to nine, achieved by the breaking up of the more junior battalions. The 10th battalion was one of those chosen.

On 2 February, whilst in camp at Haute Tombelle, the order was received and on 4 February 1918, after nearly three years’ service on the Western Front, the 10th Battalion was disbanded. The men paraded at 6am on the 4th February and were split into a number of parties, ‘A’ Company going to 1st/5th DLI , ‘B’ Company to the 2nd/7th (probably a mistake for 1st/7th) and 1st/8th DLI, ‘C’ Company to the 15th and 1st/8th DLI, and ‘D’ Company to the 1st/6th and 1st/8th DLI. 2nd DLI got the runners, best NCOs and the band. 

Private Tait was one of the party sent to join the 1st/8th battalion, 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division, in his case ‘B’ Company under Captain Holdsworth. At this time the battalion was in the Passchendaele sector.

He spent relatively little time with his new battalion, suffering two bouts of inflammation of the connective tissue (ICT) in his arms in February and March which took him away on 23 February, whilst the battalion was in GHQ Reserve at St Martin-au-Laert. After a stay at 10 Convalescent Depot, Escault and E Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, he returned to his unit on 20 April 1918, shortly after its participation in the Battle of the Lys. Within not much more than a month of his return, he was wounded at Soissons, suffering a Gun Shot Wound (bullet) to the right thigh on 27 May 1918, during Operation Blücher-Yorck (or the Battle of the Aisne 1918 to the British), an action in which the battalion was effectively destroyed.

The Battle commenced with an exceptionally heavy and carefully targeted gas and High Explosive bombardment of 3,700 guns at 1am, with the assault itself following at 4am. The 8th battalion, along with the 6th, was in the front line, emplaced on lower ground East of the Californie Plateau on the Chemin des Dames, and was swiftly overwhelmed. Private Tait was one of 70 wounded recorded in the War diary for that day, seven other ranks being killed and a further 371 missing – mostly captured. After passing through the hands of the 1st/3rd Northumbrian Field Ambulance, he passed through the casualty evacuation chain via the 1st Australian General Hospital, Rouen and Hospital Ship St David across to England. He was at the Military Hospital, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire between 31 May 1918 and 8 August, then at ‘C’ Division, King’s Lancashire Military Convalescent Hospital, Blackpool until 17 September. His wound was reported as healed and improved with massage and physical training.

Having been on the books of the Regimental Depot since his return to England he was transferred to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion on 26 September and seen by the Battalion Medical Officer on 29 September 1918. Here, at St John’s Hospital, South Shields he was medically graded Bii. Then, following a medical board at Ripon his discharge was approved on 17 October 1918 and he was transferred to Army Reserve Class ‘P’ on the same day. This indicated that he was regarded as one ‘whose services are deemed to be temporarily of more value to the country in civil life rather than in the Army’ and entitled to a pension owing to length of service or, in this case, disability upon discharge. He was graded as 20% disabled and granted a pension of 5 shillings and sixpence a week for 52 weeks from 18 October 1918. He was also entitled to the Silver War Badge, Number B293164. He was finally discharged under Para 392 xvia of King’s Regulations on 26 April 1919 whilst on strength of 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. Upon appearance before a further medical board on 10 September he received a supplementary war gratuity of £5.

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 4 Lloyd Street, Lemington on Tyne, Newcastle (1911 census)

Employment: Coal miner, putter (1911 census)

Family: Father: Joseph Tait
Brother: William Tait (1911 census)

Gender: Male

Contributed by AHJ, South Wales