James Arthur Godber
Private 306314 - Sherwood Foresters
Notts Derby Regiment 2nd/6th Battalion
Enlisted: Sutton-in-Ashfield June 1915
Killed in Action France 2nd Dec 1917 : Aged 29
Cambrai Memorial, Louverval - Panel 8
Private 306314 James Arthur Godber was born Q4 1888 in Hucknall Huthwaite. Parents 1883 Q4 Mansfield registered marriage between coal miner Mr James Godber from Arnold, and Miss Mary Bradder from Hucknall-under-Huthwaite, begins family life in one of the past cottages on Royal Oak Yard, Church Street, where James was third son born off a renamed Blackwell Road.
Thomas fathered 10 children while moving on through 1901 Barker Street until lastly settled into New street. Mrs Mary Godber managed to raise six surviving infant mortality, naming that last known 1911 household headed by Mr Thomas Godber 48. Wife Mary 49, had mothered John George 27, although he'd then left married, still keeping James Arthur 22 and William Edaward 18, similarly following New Hucknall coal mining employment underground, while Annie 14, Thomas 12, and Ida 6, were at school.
Mr James Arthur Godber was reportedly married, potentially April 1914 to Miss Gertrude Hoaten in Chesterfield district. Marital home just addresses 104 Blackwell Road, Huthwaite, leaving no children when enlisted at Sutton-in-Ashfield June 1915.
Private 306314 James Arthur Godber joined 2/6th Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment. Initial deployment to help quell the Irish Rebellion is where he received wounds April 1916. Four bullets remained in his body when this Sherwood Forester next landed in France. Dutifully serving role of reserve stretcher bearer with C Company positioned near La Vacquerieis is when he was killed in action by a German machine gun resisting that enemy attack 2nd December 1917, aged 29.
J A Godber was given a war cemetery burial and remembrance on Cambrai Memorial, adding listing on Huthwaite cenotaph. Pte James Arthur Godber was further commemorated on the Methodists members plaque at Huthwaite Sherwood Street Chapel.
Official news has been received of the death in action of Private J. A. Godber, 306314, C Company, 2/6th. Sherwood Foresters, whose home was at 104, Blackwell Road, Huthwaite. He was a reserve stretcher bearer, and a letter sent by Private F. Moore, 60325, 11th. Platoon, C Company 2/6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, states that he was killed instantaneously on Sunday, December 2nd, being shot through the head by a machine gun bullet while lying on the parapet. This letter was received on Christmas Eve, and the official intimation on the previous Saturday. Private Godber was 29 years old, and worked at New Hucknall Colliery previous to enlisting in June 1915. He was wounded in the Irish rebellion, receiving four bullets in his body which were never extracted. He had been in France five months and his last leave was just before Whitsuntide, 1917. He leaves a widow but no family.
It is with feelings of great sorrow that I write you these few lines to let you know how Jim met his death in action on Sunday, December 2nd. His end was instantaneous, as he was shot through the head by a German machine gun bullet while lying on the parapet, so he suffered no pain. He was a reserve stretcher bearer in our section, and was highly thought of by all the men of our Company, and more especially by those to whose platoon he belonged. We miss him very much, and I hope that God will help you to bear your heavy loss. It may comfort you a little to know that he had a decent burial in a British cemetery, and I hope that by this time you will have received his effects, which I gave to the Quarter-Master of our Company to forward to you. I have shared the parcel out between the men who belonged Jim's section, and I am returning the letter to you out of it and also his cap badge. I don't think I can tell you anything else this time. I am sending you my address, and I shall be pleased to tell you anything that I may know if you write and ask me.
Private F. Moore, Stretcher Bearer.
In loving memory of Private J A Godber (Huthwaite) 2/6th Sherwood Foresters, who was killed in Action, in France, on December 2nd 1917. We were not there to take his hand, or hear his parting word; But now he's gone to the better land, where sorrow is unheard. - From his loving Mother, Father, Brothers and Sisters.