J. Trace
Service no. 8867
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), 1st/16th Battalions
Enlisted in Westminster; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Information from the censuses
James Trace was an office boy for a firm of solicitors. He shared four rooms at 70b Hackford Road, Stockwell with his parents and siblings. His father, unemployed cab driver John Trace, 59, was from Torbryan, Devon; his mother, Lucy Trace, 51, was from Leicestershire. Three other children lived at home: Maude Trace, 20, a dressmaker; William Trace, 18, like James a solicitor’s office boy; and Arthur Trace, 14, an errand boy. There were seven other siblings.
James was baptised at St John the Divine, Kennington, on 4 September 1895, when his parents lived at 116 Cowley Road. At that time his father described himself as an ostler (he looked after horses at an inn).
