Walter Edward James

Reflections of a Rifleman Walter Edward James

In 1915 Walter James, a house painter from Shoreditch, enlisted with the 6th Battalion London Regiment (The City of London Rifles), known as the Cast Iron Sixth. He saw action at Loos, Vimy, the Somme, Ypres and Passchendaele before being transferred to the 2nd Battalion 16th London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) for service in Palestine. Invalided back to Blighty, he performed with a concert party of wounded soldiers. His vivid memoir recalls the sights and sounds of battle alongside the realities of day-to-day life and comradeship, laced with plenty of Cockney humour.