Boy who lied about his age to go to war in Undercliffe Cemetery

To members of the Wilman family, this was a family headstone, but it contained something rather special...

“Could I do something?” Seeing from the inscription that Jim Wilman had served with the West Yorkshire Regiment and had died of his injuries after the First World War, I set to.

There are no happy stories when it comes to matters like this. Jim Wilman’s parents were Jim and Anne, he also had a sister, Ethel, two years his senior. Jim Wilman senior had been a plumber and had sadly died in 1905. In 1911 Anne was still keeping the house at Alderscholes Lane, Thornton, looking after a boarder called George Wood. This a two-bedroomed property, it would mean the three Wilmans would share one of the bedrooms. The weekly rent would have been the family’s main income. Ethel was working in a local mill, as was Jim, now in his final year at school, but also working part-time to help bring some money in.

Jim Wilman enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regiment in November 1915. There is no doubt he lied about his age, but maybe he was now of an age he could no longer share a bedroom with his mother and sister...

At the time, both Bradford Pals battalions (16th and 18th West Yorks) were undergoing final fitting out prior to be sent to Egypt the following month. Jim was posted to the 20th Bn West Yorks (Bradford Pals Reserve Battalion) as number 138. He would have spent a thoroughly miserable winter at Colsterdale Camp on the moors in North Yorkshire before going to Clipstone Camp in Nottinghamshire in early 1916. Men had died in training in these camps that winter, due to the harsh weather conditions.

It is not known precisely when Jim was sent to France, but this looks to have been following the destruction of the Bradford Pals at Serre on July 1, 1916. Records indicate that Jim did serve with the 1st Bradford Pals. He also served with the 12th and 9th battalions West Yorks. He most likely joined the 9th Bn when they returned to France in 1918, shortly after the breaking up of both Bradford Pals Battalions in the February.

Wilman family grave, with Jim's name on it (Image: Submitted)

It is not known precisely what happened or when, but it seems Jim Wilman finished the war in hospital. As well as receiving both the British War and Victory Medals, he also received the Silver War Badge in August 1919 for ‘Wounds’ when he was discharged (late) in August 1919. He received a war pension, with his mother, Anne, named as the beneficiary.

His gravestone clearly indicates that when Jim Wilman died in 1923, this was the result of his injuries sustained in the war. The term ‘wounds’ when related to the award of the Silver War Badge can also mean ‘wounded by gas’ - this would seem to be a potential explanation that would fit Jim’s sad demise. He was buried with his father.

Jim’s mother, Anne, passed away in 1932. His sister, Ethel, had not married. After burying her mother and erecting this family headstone, she left England in 1933 to begin a new life, arriving at Montreal, Canada that year. Nothing more is known of her.

There is no known photograph of Jim Wilman, nothing survives of this family in Bradford today - apart from this newly discovered family gravestone.

Yet this stone tells a further story...It gives Jim Wilman’s age at death in May 1923 as being 23 years of age. When he enlisted in Bradford in 1915, he had been barely 16 - my age when I became interested in the Great War. Like me, he had been his parent’s only son.

His date of death falls after the CWGC ‘cut-off’ date of August 31, 1921 for Jim Wilman to be classified as an ‘official war casualty’. Neither Jim, nor his details, will be found within the CWGC database, or other lists of the war dead. This gravestone will not be listed on the CWGC ‘Form 708’ for this cemetery, to be officially cared for and looked after into the future...but I know it will be.

These caring volunteers at Undercliffe Cemetery, having found this stone and now provided with his story, will certainly take care of that!

Area of Undercliffe Cemetery where the Wilman grave is, covered in overgrowth (Image: Submitted)

The area after overgrowth was cleared (Image: Submitted)

* David P Whithorn is president of Bus to Bradford, a group which researches and commemorates local men who served in the First World War.