Private J. H. BEERE or BEER (1875–1897/8)
James Henry Beere (spelt Beer on the memorial) was born in 1875 at Towns End, Neithrop near Banbury and his baptism on 30 July that year is recorded in the register of St Mary's Church there. He was the youngest child of the labourer William Beere and his wife Sarah Wagstaff, whose marriage in the Banbury district was registered in the fourth quarter of 1861.
His mother Sarah had given birth to two illegitimate daughters, Ann Maria Wagstaff in 1856 and Emma or Emily Wagstaff, in 1857 and had at least another nine children after her wedding, five of whom died in infancy.
The 1881 census shows James (5) as a schoolboy, living at Towns End, Neithrop with his parents William (70), who was still working as a labourer, his mother Sarah (46), his unmarried half-sister Emma Wagstaff (24), now a servant who had a nine-month old baby daughter of her own called Mary Jane, and three of his full siblings: William (18), who was a labourer, and Elizabeth (13) and Felix (7), who were at school.
James's elderly father William Beere died at the age of 75 on 30 June 1885 and his mother Sarah Beere married her second husband John Gibbs in 1886. The 1891 census shows James (17) working as a moulder in a foundry (possibly the Vulcan Foundry in Banbury) and living at 16 Cherwell Terrace in Neithrop with his mother Sarah (50), who was working as a seamstress, his stepfather John Gibbs (59), who was an oilman, and their boarder.
On 20 December 1892 James Henry Beere enlisted in Oxford at the age of 17 years and 6 months and joined the 4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry as a Private (Service No. 3361) for a period of six years. He stated that his current or most recent master in his work as a labourer was Mr Hutchinson of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, but his address was still 16 Cherwell Terrace in Neithrop. He joined the “line” on 10 September 1893.
He served under a different service number (4519) in Bengal, both on the Punjab Frontier and at Tirah. He died of disease in 1897/8 at the age of about 22 and was posthumously awarded the India Medal with two clasps.
