We sincerely thank descendant Ian Balsdon who contributed to the story.

Can you help us identify James?

James Balsdon was born in 1889 at Blyth, Northumberland, England, the fifth of eight children born to James Balsdon and Margaret Bell. He grew up in one of Britain's great coal mining districts, where generations of families depended on the mines for their livelihood.

His siblings were:

• Grace (1875–1908), who married Emil Kneeling.
• George Bell (1880–1966), who married Emma Floyd Southern.
• Clara (1883–1949), who married Arthur Morin.
• Joseph Tucker (1886–1976), who married Margaret Ellen Hindmarsh.
• John Turner (1892–1955). wounded in action at Fromelles
• Russell Henry (1895–1916) Died of wounds
• Blanche Mary (1898–1971), who married Clifford Yeomans.

James and his sons worked in the Northumberland coal mines - Joseph is in the 1901 census as being a pony driver in the mines at just 14 years old. The 1901 England Census paints a picture of a typical Northumberland mining family. James's father worked as a coal miner and, like many boys in the district, the children entered the industry from an early age. Fourteen-year-old Joseph was already employed as a pony driver underground, guiding pit ponies that hauled coal through the narrow mine workings. James and his younger brother Russell would also follow their father into the mines.

James, senior, died in 1906. Then, in 1912, the 54-year-old Margaret decided to migrate to Australia with James, Russell and Blanche. Joseph and his wife Margaret followed in July 1914. Grace, George, Clara and John remained in England with their families. Being a family of miners, they settled in the Australian coal mining centre of the Hunter Valley NSW. They lived in Weston, which is about 40 km NW of Newcastle.

Although mining remained the family's principal occupation, the Balsdons were remembered for much more than their work underground. Their home in Weston was filled with music and art, with a grand piano occupying pride of place in the front room. By 1915 the Balsdons had established themselves in their adopted community. James and Russell worked as miners, while Joseph was employed as a billiard marker. Within a year, however, the family's fortunes would change forever as three brothers volunteered to serve with the Australian Imperial Force, while another brother and a nephew answered the call in Britain. The war would exact an extraordinary toll on one family.

Ian Balsdon remembers the home – There is a chimney (that you can’t see in this photo) on the left side where there was a fire and mantlepiece. When you walked in the house, the grand piano was on the right and the mantlepiece with deer horns on the left. The Balsdons love music and art. James and Russell worked in the mines, but Joseph’s enlistment papers cited that he worked as a “billiard marker”- a scorekeeper, not a miner.

With the First World War entering its second year, James and his brothers Russell and Joseph answered Australia's call to serve. On 13 September 1915, the three brothers enlisted together at West Maitland, New South Wales, and were allocated to the 4th Reinforcements of the 30th Battalion. At the same time, their brother George and their nephew James Balsdon Kneeling were serving with the British Army in the Northumberland Fusiliers.

Training now included the use of gas masks and they also would have heard the heavy artillery from the front lines. On 8th July they were headed to the front lines, first to Estaires, 20 km, and the next day 11 km to Erquinghem, where they were billeted at Jesus Farm. They got their first ‘taste’ of being in the front lines at 9.00 PM on 10th July. A week later the battalion received orders to take part in an attack near the French village of Fromelles. Poor weather delayed the assault for two days, but on 19 July the men prepared for what would become the 30th Battalion's first major battle on the Western Front—and one of the most costly in Australia's military history.

Then just two days after that, the 29 officers and 927 other ranks of the 30th Battalion were into battle. The 30th Battalion’s role in the battle was to provide support for the attacking 31st and 32nd Battalions, digging trenches and providing carrying parties for supplies and ammunition. They would be called in as reserves if needed for the fighting. The 32nd’s charge over the parapet began at 5.53 PM and the 31st’s at 5.58 PM.

There were machine guns emplacements to their left and directly ahead at Delrangre Farm and there was heavy artillery fire in No-Man’s-Land. The initial assaults were successful and by 6.30 PM the Aussies were in control of the German’s 1st line system (Trench B in the diagram below), which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom”.

Source AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

While the 30th’s role was to be in support, commanders on scene made the early decision to use them as much-needed reinforcements. A necessary act, but it had consequences as it interfered with the planned flow of supplies. By 8.30 PM the Australians’ left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and they were told that “the trenches were to be held at all costs”.

Source AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 12

When the 30th was ‘formally’ called to provide fighting support at 10:10 PM, Lieutenant-Colonel Clark of the 30th reported:

Fighting continued through the night. The Australians made a further charge at the main German line beyond Trench B, but they were low on grenades, there was machine gun fire from behind from the emplacement at Delangre Farm and they were so far advanced that they were getting shelled by both sides.

At 4.00 AM the Germans began an attack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into Trench A (map). Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, portions of the rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to be in a position to surround the soldiers. At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties. Having only a few grenades left, the only resistance the 31st could offer was with rifles. “The enemy swarmed in and the retirement across No Mans’ Land resembled a shambles, the enemy artillery and machine guns doing deadly damage.”

Source AWM4 23/48/12, 31st Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 29
By 10.00 AM on the 20th, the Germans had repelled the Australian attack and the 30th Battalion were pulled out of the trenches. The nature of this battle was summed up by Private Jim Cleworth (784) from the 29th:

Initial figures of the impact of the battle on the 30th were 54 killed, 230 wounded and 68 missing – for a battalion that was intended to be in ‘reserve’. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large amount of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield.

The ultimate total for the 30th Battalion was that 125 soldiers were either killed or died from wounds and of this total 80 were missing/unidentified.

James, Russell and Joseph all received the Victory and British War Medals. James and Russell also received Memorial Plaques and Memorial Scrolls.

Their sister Blanche was in communication with the Army for years after the War, seeking to receive James’s and Russell’s War medals. There were ‘rules’ about who in the family was eligible for this – parents, eldest sibling, etc – and next-of-kin records on file with the Army would have been complicated by their multi-country basis and deaths in the family. She persisted and finally received the medals in 1943. Finally, some degree of closure for the loss of two of her brothers.

James is commemorated at V.C. Corner, Australian Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles and he and Russell at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra and the Kurri Kurri NSW War Memorial. Russell is buried in the Boulogne Cemetery, France.

While Privates Payten’s and Hodgins’ witness statements seems clear enough about James’ fate, his official record in January 1917 says he died while a Prisoner of War.

Did he actually survive and was captured?

There is a long trail of communication about James, but it does not fit well with either the processes the Germans used in reporting Prisoners of War or the handling of soldiers’ bodies that they recovered. At the end of July 1916, there is German correspondence advising that James’ paybook had been sent to the Central Office of Left Property in Berlin, but they also issued advice, dated 2 August, that James “fell on 4.7.16 in the neighbourhood of Fromelles” (was this a typo?). This wording is typically used for the bodies that the Germans recovered from the battlefield. They also had his ID tag, which was returned later.

James’ name then appears on an 18 August German list of personal effects. In mid-September the Red Cross created an ‘index card’ that denotes James as a prisoner, but this is likely based on the assumption that if the Germans had his Paybook it must have meant that he was a Prisoner of War. There is also an undated, handwritten annotation, however, of “bel. Died”.

At the end of October James appears on three separate German Death Lists.

There are no communications from the Germans about him being a Prisoner of War, but in January 1917, he is officially declared by the Army as having died in Germany as a POW.

After the War, Captain Charles Mills made extensive efforts to locate all the Australians who died in POW camps. In one of his reports, 16 March 1919, he did note that James died on 20th July and that his ID disk had been returned, but there were no reports about James being processed or having died as a Prisoner of War. The last document about James is from 1920, long after his Service Record was filled in as having died while a POW. This one says he was “Killed in Action” on 20th July 1916.

In all likelihood, James did die as described by his mates, the Germans recovered his ID tag and paybook and passed them on thru channels and presumably they buried him at Fromelles, possibly in the burial pit at Pheasant Wood that was discovered in 2008. As of 2024 26 of the 80 unidentified soldiers from the 30th Battalion who died at the battle have been found to be in the burial pit. 70 unidentified bodies remain from the 250 that were in the grave.

James could be one of these remaining soldiers. We need family DNA donors to be able to find out and be able to give James proper recognition. Specifically, we need a mtDNA donor, i.e. someone from a female to female to female line. It could be a living male, but he would need to have had an all female ancestral relationship as well.