James Munt

The name of 15724 Private James Munt does not feature in the original List of Wheatley men who served in the war, but his connection with the village is close. He enlisted with Kitchener's New Army (Oxford Chronicle 18 September 1914) and served with 10^th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, which landed in France on 8 August 1915. James died less than two months later, on 25 September, the opening day of the Battle of Loos, and is remembered on Panel 60 to 64 of the Memorial at Loos. A book was published by Nick Christian in 1996 entitled In the Shadow of Lone Tree - The Ordeal of Gloucestershire men at the Battle of Loos - 1915, which chronicles the Regiment's experience at the time. George Chiddington of the same battalion died in January 1916.

Born in 1893 at Waterperry Common, he was a son of Walter James Munt, born in Wheatley in 1865, a cattleman in 1901 on Cooper's farm in Horspath, and Eliza Jane nee Fonge/Funge, born in 1866 in Waterperry. At that time James was living with his Fonge grandparents at Farm House in Waterperry. Ten years later in 1911, aged 18 he was a jobbing gardener, living with his parents, now at Grassendale, Horspath. He was a cousin of Thomas Munt, who also died.