James Caulton

  General Notes:

Lived at Festus St, Kirkby in Ashfield in 1901.
Butcher / slaughterer, moved to shop on Alfreton Road after WW1, and later to 27 Llanberis Grove

Birth certificate December 1894, Basford vol 76, p.150 (TBC).

James Caulton bought 200 couple of rabbits there, and took them home in a sack on the train (T Gee, on BME Gee tapes).

Served in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment 1914-18 Regimental number(s) 2447 & 330871. Rank: Private. Medals - War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War.

The History of the Regiment in the First World War is very much the story of the men of the counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. When War was declared, The Sherwood Foresters consisted of eight battalions and a Depot in Derby. During the War the Regiment expanded to a maximum of 33 Battalions of which 20 served overseas. Altogether, some 140,000 men, nearly all from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, served in the Regiment - 11,409 of whom did not return.

James was on the HMT Aragon carrying 2,700 personnel to Alexandria. It arrived there on 30 December 1917 but because of a shortage of berths, was instructed to wait outside the harbour. Almost immediately, the Aragon was attacked by the German submarine UC 34 and sank. 610 on board were lost.

  Research Notes:

During the Second World War Jack HAYWOOD, Jim CAULTON, and Samuel WYLD all operated Butcher's Shops in the Bulwell area of Nottingham.
Not only were the customers rationed and have to produce their ration books, but also the shop keepers were "rationed" in the amount of meat they could sell to those customers. Exceeding the regulated quantity could result in fines if caught. Many shop keepers did exceed their limits but were able to avoid detection.
The three butchers, Jack, Jim and Sam all, at various times had excess meat on their premises, and their approach to avoid detection involved moving the meat between each others shops when an inspector was making his inspections.
Jack HAYWOOD was caught later on selling meat he had obtained on the black-market, probably stolen. Jack was prosecuted and recieved a heavy fine.
Jim was a cousin to Harold Larwood, English cricketer.

http://awt.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=neil_leveritt&id=I545&ti=5538

James married Hilda Wyld, daughter of Edwin Wyld and Emma Smith. (Hilda Wyld was born in 1895 in Nottingham, christened on 21 Aug 1895 in St Marys, Bulwell, Nottingham and died in Dec 1965.)