JAMES HARRY FREDERICK IGGLEDEN
One of the persons perhaps best placed to follow the progress of the Great War and maybe even his son's place in it would have been James George Nicholls Iggleden, the father of James Harry. Records show that he was working as a reporter for the Portsmouth Evening News from 1898 until at least 1906 but probably to 1920 when he transferred to Life.
James George was born in Berkhamstead in 1858 to parents James and Sarah and the family spent a lengthy period up to the mid 1870s in Jersey where they lived in a hotel run by James sen. By 1881 however they had moved to Portsmouth where they were living at 9 Milton Terrace. James George was only 23 years old but had already begun life as a newspaper reporter, probably for the Portsmouth Times. In 1887 he married Amelia Jane Bliss from London and a few years later were recorded living at 4 Malvern Road, Southsea, by which time their first child James Harry had been born.
The family moved to Claremont Lodge, 50 Stanley Street in 1895 and on again to 76 Laburnum Grove, North End in time for the 1901 census. In the meantime James George had exchanged his job with the Times for one at the Portsmouth Evening News.
In 1904 James Harry started a brief life at the Secondary School, Victoria Road North, staying only one year during which he took special interest in the Camera Club. In 1905 he began two years as a Pupil Teacher at the Stamsbaw Council School before proceeding to the Hartley University College, Southampton, for a two years' course of training. On gaining the Teacher's Certificate he returned to Portsmouth as an Assistant Master in the Stamshaw School. Here he remained until August, 1912, when he transferred to Wellington Place School.
He voluntarily gave up his professional work in November, 1915, to enlist in the 2/6th Battalion Hampshire Regiment. After a short period of recruit training at Bournemouth, he left England with a draft for India where he joined the 1/6 Battalion on 14th March, 1916. Thence he proceeded in September 1917 to Mesopotamia, where the his unit had much severe marching. On 27th June, 1918, while bathing in the River Tigris, he was drowned, in spite of a gallant effort by two of his comrades to rescue him.
Further Information
The photograph above is taken from a memorial booklet published by Southern Grammar School from which extracts also appear above.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists Private James Harry Frederick Iggleden, (281367), 1st/6th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, date of death, 27/06/1918, remembered on the Basra Memorial (Panel 21 and 63).
James Iggleden is also remembered on the Southern Grammar School WW1 Memorial and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'.