James Jagger

Chadderton Tribunal 11 September 1918
Reported Oldham Chronicle 14 September 1918

At Chadderton Tribunal on Wednesday James Jagger (18), grade 1, of 3 Spencer Street, Hollinwood, appealed for absolute exemption on the grounds of conscientious objection. Formerly he was a clerk in a cotton mill office.

He wrote that he objected to all forms of military service, combatant or non combatant, believing that war is wrong and against the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ set forth in the Sermon on the Mount. He had served with the British Red Cross Society in the war zone and returned for medical examination. What he had seen of the horrors of war - the cruelty and destruction and poison gas - strengthened his conviction. Under no consideration could he take part in war. He had acted as a voluntary orderly with the ambulance in France in the war zone.

He was a member of the Church of England and was willing to do any work of national importance but not under military control. He was willing to join the Friends’ Ambulance Corps, which was voluntary service, and in which he would have to provide his own uniform. With the British Red Cross he received 21s per week, but he did not know that when he volunteered for service. He claimed that he had been exposed to the dangers of the war zone by his service in France and produced fragments of shell which had hit his steel helmet. He was willing to continue his work as an orderly and would not object to acting as a stretcher bearer.

The members of the Tribunal were agreed that the case was a genuine one, but several could not understand why he should object to military control in the R.A.M.C. Exemption from military service granted on condition that he joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit in France before September 30th for the duration of the war.

[The Jagger family owned Jagger’s Lodging House on Beever Street, Oldham]

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Born Oldham, 18 August 1900
Died Sarasota, Florida 9 December 1978

1911 census:
3 Spencer Street, Hollinwood, Oldham
Single with parents and 8 siblings
Occ. Scholar

16 October 1926 sailed Liverpool to New York, single

15 August 1931 sailed Liverpool to New York with wife Ellen Jagger.

1930 American Population Schedule
New Jersey, USA

1940 American Population Schedule
New Jersey, USA

Contributed by Dorothy Bintley