Waring, James John

James was christened on 18th September 1887, in Barford, although the baptism record shows his parents were living in the parish of St Paul’s, Warwick, at the time. His father is recorded as being a musician, although at the time of the 1881 census he was an army pensioner serving in the Warwick militia.
In 1891 Annie (recorded as married) was living with her mother, Martha Cleaver, and 5 children at Church Street, Barford. James had 2 older sisters, Martha (9) and Edith (4), an older brother George (7) and a younger brother Thomas (2). There had been a 6th child who died at or soon after birth.

James’s father died in 1897 and the 1901 census shows Annie, now a widow and working as a laundress, living at 1 Woodwards Court, West Rock, Warwick with her daughter, Edith (aged 14 and a domestic servant) and son James (13).
In 1902, aged 14 and just 4′ 10″ tall, James signed up, in Warwick, to join the Manchester Regiment. On his attestation papers it says that he was accepted because he was the son of an old soldier who served in the Manchester Regiment. He gave his next of kin as his brother Thomas.

1911 saw James (23 and single) working as a general labourer and living with his mother, Annie Palmer (56) described as a ‘former charwoman’ and his brother Thomas Edward (22) at 11 Queens square.
Also on the census was James’s elder sister Edith Tandy (22), visiting from Toronto, Canada with her children Edith Tandy (3)  and William Tandy (1) and a niece Edith Bonett (10), also recorded as a visitor.

James married Emma Dodd on 2nd August 1915 at St John the Baptist church in Coventry. The register shows that he was living at House No.6 Court 23 Spon Street and she was living at House No.10 in the same Court and that James was working as a painter.