A qualified Mechanical Engineer, James Sadler is retired following a teaching career which spanned over 30 years, much of which was spent as the Head of Mathematics at a large Comprehensive School in Wiltshire. Born in Twickenham, Middlesex in 1947, James grew up to realise that his father, also James, had played a full part as an NCO infantryman in a major action in world history, the First World War. James, senior, died in 1951, aged 61, leaving personal records in the form of two handwritten books relating his experiences as part of Kitchener’s First Army, with the 9th Royal Fusiliers (Service) Battalion, 1914 to 1918. From his mother, the younger James was to learn that it had always been his father’s wish for these to see publication. In bringing this wish to reality son, James, has carefully researched the time his father spent on the Western Front, transcribing his father’s work along with the War Diaries of the 9th Royal Fusiliers. A member of the WFA, James has a keen interest in the many aspects of the First World War and a number of visits to the battlefields of northern France have enabled him to link the personal aspect of his father’s recollections with those of the Battalion, the 36th Brigade and 12th (Eastern) Division. Like his father who, in 1914, enlisted from his lifetime occupation as a gardener/horticulturalist, James is a keen gardener and sportsman with major interests in cricket (an E.C.B. Qualified coach), rugby and football; his relaxation also takes in amateur photography and music. James has three married sons and lives, with his partner, in the Dales area of North Yorkshire.
