I am James Tilbury, I was born in 1883 and I was the youngest son of Francis Tilbury and Eliza nee Mealing. My father was a chair maker. The Tilburys and the Mealings had several family connections with the trade, it was where we Wycombe men found work. I was one of eight children. We were a large family and as and when my sisters and brothers married and had children so we spread our wings. By the age of 17 I was an upholsterer and two of my sisters were school teachers. By 1911 I was the only one still living at home, at 32 Slater Street.
Then the war began and we men turned our attention to the battlefield. I initially enlisted as Private 19061 in the Ox and Bucks light Infantry but in 1915, became Private 14089 of the 1st Garrison Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. After scarcely three months training our destiny was Egypt. Sadly this was where I was to die from heart failure on the 4th June 1917. I was buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery. I was 34.
My cousin James Willliam Piercy Tilbury is remembered on a headstone not far from this one, here in Wycombe Cemetery. He was also a casualty of the Great War.
Researched by Margaret Anderton, Flackwell Local Area History Group and Sally Scagell, Lost the Plot
