Clegg, James (Jim)
Lance Sergeant
No. 242618, 1st/6th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment
Killed in action on Thursday 24 May 1917 (aged 28)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Arras Memorial, France (Bay 7 and 8)
Newtownards and District War Memorial
BIOGRAPHY
The death of Lance Sergeant James Clegg (No. 242618) was reported in the Newtownards Chronicle under the headline Newtownards Family Bereaved.
James Clegg was born on 12 August 1888 in Corcrum, Poyntzpass and he was the eldest son of James and Margaret Clegg (nee Matchett, sometimes Matchet) who were married on 25 May 1887 in Cremore Presbyterian Church, Poyntzpass, Co Armagh. James Clegg, a labourer from Tullynacross, was a son of John Clegg, a farmer. Maggie Matchett from Corcreevy was a daughter of Andrew Matchett, a farmer.
The Clegg family lived in Corcrum, Poyntzpass and in the townland of Federnagh, Poyntzpass, Co Armagh
James Clegg Senior, who was born in County Down, worked as a labourer and he and Margaret had five children:
James (born 12 August 1888 in Corcrum, Poyntzpass)
William John (born 17 September 1890 in Corcrum, Poyntzpass)
Samuel (born 1 December 1892 in Corcrum, Poyntzpass)
Mary Elizabeth (born 2 January 1895 in Corcrum, Poyntzpass)
Joseph (born 16 October 1897 in Corcrum, Poyntzpass)
James (Jim) Clegg worked as a gamekeeper and domestic servant and in 1911 (aged 22) he was working in Durrow, Co. Laois (then Queen’s County).
Jim Clegg enlisted in Longton, Staffordshire and he served with the Prince of Wales’s (North Staffordshire Regiment).
Lance Sergeant Jim Clegg (No. 242618) was 28 when he was killed in action on 24 May 1917 and he has no known grave.
After Jim died his brother William and sister Mary who lived in Greenwell Street, Newtownards placed a For King and Country notice in the Newtownards Chronicle. It contained the verse:
Somewhere abroad our brother fell,
Beneath the roar of shot and shell;
When days are dark, and friends are few,
Dear Jim, it’s then we’ll long for you.
Lance Sergeant Jim Clegg (No. 242618) is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in France and on Newtownards and District War Memorial.