Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

James, or as his friends nicknamed him "Circus"; was apparently quiet a jokester, at least while they were training in Egypt. That fact changed. James was a reinforcement for the 16th, that should have meant his arrival to Anzac cove would be safe right? not even a little. The exact details are unknown; it's from my grandmother and military records I've pieced this together.

Imagine, you and a great friend of yours are in a huge rowboat, sailing with your fellow soldiers to the cove. most likely having conversations with each other. And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, the moment you've been training for. You step out onto the beach, everyone else does the same. Suddenly an artillery strike blows up your best mate and other fellow soldiers, and the dirt kicked up from this explosion buries you alive, immobilising you.

Eventually you are fished out of the dirt, how long it took is unknown, but no matter the time, James couldn't have wished it to be sooner. He gets out of the dirt, seeing the rumble and death from the strike. Those you've seen as brothers, dead. Then being told to get to work as a signaller jumping trench to trench, maintaining pivotal communication lines for the 16th.

He was recounted as very nervy, obviously being shaken up from seeing his best friend blown up in front of him before being immobilised. James was also suffering a relapse from a disease he got when in Melbourne. Because of this he was sent to a few hospitals, but he could never unsee what he saw. After failing to fix his "weird heart issue" he was just sent back into Gallipoli. Where he learned his mother had passed away back home. James had a lot of nightmares of bleeding headless soldiers; but now his mother dying became a regular topic in his nightmares.

But through all of this, he persevered. He made it to the end of the Gallipoli campaign, then he was told to go to the Western Front. Which he also survived. James came back home a different man. But he married and had two children, one of which was Raymond Alexander Horrocks (named after his brother), although James and his brother had a falling out, so Raymond was renamed Peter. But soon after, James's wife died.