Notes
The Roll lists his address as 54 Oundle Road, Peterborough. It states that he died on 31/7/1917, which differs from official records.
(Soldiers Died in the Great War recorded that Guardsman James Hewitt was a native of Halifax, and that he was killed in action on 1/8/1917. He was likewise recorded as Guardsman James Hewitt on the Medal Rolls. The Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects recorded him as Private James Hewitt, stating he was killed in action on 1/8/1917 in Belgium and that his widow, Mary E Hewitt, was his legatee.
His birth was registered in Halifax in 1882 as James William W Hewitt, which was his mother's maiden surname. On 24/12/1882 he was baptised at St Augustine's Church in Halifax as "James William Wilcock", son of Joshua and Mary Hannah Hewitt. Three years later, in 1885, James' mother Mary Hannah Hewitt married Joshua Wilcock in Halifax. On the 1891 census James was recorded under his father's surname "Wilcock", living with his parents in Northowram, Halifax. On the 1901 census James was again recorded under his father's surname of Wilcock, living with his parents in Halifax.
In adult life, James dropped the surname Wilcock, and resumed his legal surname Hewitt. When he married Mary Elizabeth Taylor at St James' Church in Halifax on 10/10/1907, his forenames were recorded in the Marriage register as "James William Wilcock" and his surname was recorded as "Hewitt". On the 1911 census James and Mary Hewitt were living with their two children at 26 Brow Lane, Shibden, Halifax. He enlisted in the Grenadier Guards as "James Hewitt", and that is the name under which he is recorded on all surviving Army documents.
Due to an admin error by the Army, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission originally misrecorded James as "Private F Hewitt", listing his regimental number as 26213, and stating that he died aged 35 on 1/8/1917 serving in the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, and is now buried in grave V.B.12 at Artillery Wood Cemetery in Belgium, having been reinterred after the War. They record him as the son of Mrs Mary H Hewitt of Halifax, and as the husband of Mary E Hewitt, of 54 Oundle Rd., Peterborough.
Due to the error in CWGC's records, James' headstone in Artillery Wood Cemetery originally read "26213 GUARDSMAN, F HEWITT, 2ND GRENADIER GUARDS, 1ST AUGUST 1917". A few years ago, I advised CWGC that his true name was James William Wilcock Hewitt, and sent them the relevant documentary evidence. Consequently, their online record of him now correctly lists him as "James Hewitt", and his headstone inscription will doubtless by now have been amended accordingly. JK).