GUARDSMAN JAMES GREEN
COLDSTREAM GUARDS
6TH MARCH 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: GROVE TOWN CEMETERY, MEAULTE, FRANCE
Ada Green chose her eldest son's inscription, reflecting her own stoical acceptance of the situation. There was nothing she could do except 'smile and wait', wait until her own death when she would meet him in heaven. It was all she had been able to do through the war too. Her husband, also James, an army reservist, rejoined immediately on the outbreak and, if I'm reading his service record correctly, he was in France with the BEF on 24 August 1914. He survived the war.
The family lived in Coventry where James senior was a motor engine fitter, he served with the Army Service Corps. James Green junior, a blacksmith's striker, served with the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. Unfortunately, his medal index card has no details other than the name of his regiment and his army number; not even the fact of his death.The 1st Battalion Coldstream Guard's war diary doesn't appear to have been digitised so we know nothing of what was happening in the days around his death. We only know that Green died in a Casualty Clearing Station in Meaulte, just south of Albert, on 6 March 1917.