Regiment: Royal Fusiliers, 9th Battalion, 12th Division
Service No: 27648
Date & place of birth: April-June 1881, Petworth
Date & place of death: 7 October 1916 (aged 34), The Somme
Private James Card was one of many thousands who died in the attritional fighting on the Somme
Family background
James Card was born and brought up in Petworth, the son of Richard and Ann Card who were living in North Street in the 1891 census. Richard was a cowman and Ann one of the few women in that census recorded as working, in her case as a dairymaid. James was the youngest of the family, with 3 brothers and 2 sisters recorded in 1891. In 1901 James was living in the Cowyard at Petworth House with his widowed brother Ernest and working as an under cowman – his parents had presumably also worked in the Cowyard for the Leconfield estate, as it is right by North Street.
By 1911 James was working as an under gardener and living at 183 Crawley Road, Roffey, Horsham.
Military service
Private Card enlisted in Horsham. His battalion went to France in 1915 and in 1916 were involved in the battles of Albert, Pozieres and Le Transloy, all in the Somme area.
Death and commemoration
Private James Card was killed in action on the Somme on 7 October 1916 aged 35. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial
Subsequent family history
Records show his brother William lived later at Scrasies Hill Lodge.
James married Adrianne Eugenie Dadswell in 1905 when she was aged 31. She was probably a widow as when she died on 4 November 1914, she left £459 12s. This explains why James Card, a gardener, left £202 in his will, administered by Mary Ann Card, spinster, one of his sisters.
There is no record of the Cards having produced offspring.