James Samuel Markham was born in Iken, Suffolk, in 1884; he was the eldest child of Bedingfield George Markham and his wife, Eliza Ruth (née Francis). James also had two younger siblings named Caroline Louisa and Frederick.

In 1911, the family were living in Kingston Terrace, Woodbridge, where James worked as a railway labourer and his father as a gardener’s labourer. In 1913, James married Ellen Louisa Hawes in Woodbridge, moving soon after to Melton, where James became a gardener for William Tertius Pretty of Greylands, Melton.

James was conscripted into the services and joined the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Suffolk Regiment for training, before being posted to the 5th (Territorial) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. In late 1917, James and a draft of men for the 5th Bedfords boarded HMT Aragon in Marseilles, along with almost two thousand seven hundred other troops, nursing staff and crew for the voyage to Egypt.

The Aragon arrived at Alexandria, in Egypt, on 30th December 1917. She attempted to enter the port, but was turned back on the orders of her protection vessel, the destroyer HMS Attack. The Aragon then anchored just offshore, near the harbour, to wait for further instructions. No protection from submarines was provided, and at 11:00, the German submarine UC-34 fired a torpedo which hit Aragon’s port side.

HMS Attack and the armed trawler, HMT Points Castle, immediately began to rescue the men from the Aragon which sank quickly, going down below the waves in only twenty minutes. HMS Attack had come alongside the Aragon, and taken onboard more than four hundred men from her, when the UC-34 fired a second torpedo, which hit the HMS Attack midship. The torpedo exploded, causing the destroyer to break in two and sink within seven minutes. Of the two thousand seven hundred people on board the Aragon and the Attack, six hundred and ten were drowned. Twenty-five men from the 5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, died that day, including James Markham.

The Woodbridge Reporter and Wickham Market Gazette of 7th February 1918 reported:

“Pte James Markham It will be recalled last week it was officially published that two destroyers were torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean on 30th December. The transport Aragon had on board 809 lives and the loss was heavy. Among the number was Pte James Markham of the Bedfordshire Regiment whose parents Mr and Mrs E Markham live at 13 Kingston Terrace, Woodbridge. He is reported as “missing, drowned.”

Pte Markham joined the forces in September last and was trained at Felixstowe, from which place he proceeded on draft to the ill-fated vessel. He was 34 years of age, and leaves a widow and no children.”

For his war service, James received only the British War Medal as he had not been in a front line warzone. He is remembered on the Chatby Memorial in Alexandria, Egypt, and on Woodbridge and Melton War Memorials.

 

Author’s Note: The number of lives in the newspaper article was reported as eight hundred and nine, considerably lower than the actual number of people on board. Contemporary records and letters show that there were, in fact, two thousand two hundred troops, one hundred and thirty officers, one hundred and sixty Voluntary Aid Detachment members and two hundred crew members – a total of two thousand six hundred and ninety people on board. In a statement to parliament in January 1918, the Secretary of the Admiralty said that the casualties were as follows; ten military officers, five hundred and eighty-one soldiers, plus nineteen members of the ship’s crew – a total of six hundred and ten lives lost.