Private James Joseph Fox
2537469
Born 1894 - Gort, Ireland
Lived in New York City, NY USA
Killed in Action at the Battle of Drocourt-Queant at Bois du Sart – Aug 28, 1918
Buried at Vis-en-Artois Cemetery, France
One wonders what gave him with that final push to jump aboard the train northbound and give it all up? To have the ‘ticket to opportunity and prosperity’ in his hand and trade it in for a tin hat? Over one hundred years may have passed yet we still are perplexed when trying to understand what made them go? After watching a bloodbath unfold in real time, why did so many still give up on their dreams, put their lives on the line and replace the fallen by wading into the torrent of death, undeterred, unabated, unyielding?
Three years prior, from amidst the fog and haze that obscured it, the place that represented opportunity, fortunate and freedom to him suddenly appeared in the distance. And as the fog separated and his ship glided into the docks at Ellis Island, New York City, this 21 yr old Irish-born lad would arrive in America. He had come to make a new life for himself. James Joseph Fox’s family had long since left their Irish homeland and moved to the English port town of Bootle. Bootle was situated just outside the modern industrial metropolis of Liverpool, England. His would have been a hard life offering Irish immigrants a tougher lot in life than their English cousins. The prospects for his life would consist of hard labour, unhealthy working conditions and poor pay to boot. Like millions of his fellow impoverished countrymen, he was not satisfied with this lot in life and decided to leave Bootle for America. Soon he found that he had replacing the dirt and soot-soaked dungarees for a sharp black suit, tie and shiny black shoes working as a butler, steps away from Central Park in midtown-Manhattan. It would have been a transition that his mother and twin sister back home would feel so much pride in his achievements.
And it was at this very apex of his transition, at a time where his prospects were the greatest when he decided to trade it all in for an entirely different form of service. The year was 1917. While it was not legal for Canada to recruit American citizens to join the war effort, the upwards of 40,000 Americans who enlisted in the CEF proved that these laws had no teeth. Across the city of New York and many other communities located along the US/Canadian border, men like James Fox would be bombarded with placards urging young men to “Come Join the American Legion, CEF”. (this was a battalion that consisted entirely of volunteers from the United States.) It was within this atmosphere, where the Irish-American decided to give it all up and travel to Canada to enlist to become a soldier.
On July 28th,1917, Private James Joseph Fox joined the 10th Royal Grenadiers Regiment, a Toronto-based contingent. Within four months he would find himself walking down the gangplank and setting his feet back down upon the shores he used to call home. Fox was back in Liverpool, England. James’ time as a soldier saw him transferred over to France and join the 116th Battalion on April 5th, 1918. With only a few months training in Canada and the UK, Fox would slowly finding himself learning the business of soldiery. While he did hear exchange of a colossal amount of gunfire between the Brits and the Germans in the Spring Offensive, he did not personally see war until the 8th of August when the Canadians executed their dynamic attack outside of Amiens. While some may call this as his baptism of war, the week that followed saw the 116th was engaged in hand-to-hand combat within the trenches at Parvillers. The battalion was pulled out of the line but given no rest. Instead, they were sent north to Arras and readied for participation in another colossal battle.
On the 28th of August, the 116th participated in what would prove to arguably be one of Canada’s greatest and most important victories in the war. Tasked with serving alongside their 9th Brigade mates, their orders were to drive up the centre of the field of battle and clear the area of any defending Germans. D Company from the 116th Battalion was attached to the 58th Battalion and ordered to clear out the German machine gun nests entrenched in a wood called Bois du Sart. It was presumed that Private Fox was assigned to D Company for when the guns died down later that morning, and the combined unit has achieved their objective, Fox did not respond when his name was called. Somewhere along the edge of the wood, probably from the dense machine gun fire that took out so many boys that day, James Joseph Fox, the butler from NYC would join the 59 other men from the 116th and die from wounds he received in combat.
Pte James Fox is buried at Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery. Remember him.