James Leap was born in Dublin in 1887 and married Elizabeth Ellen Moss at St. Mary’s Church in Chorley on the 9th January 1909; they had two children – Albert (born 1911) and James Frederick (born 1916, died 1929).
He enlisted with the Pals at Chorley on the 19th September 1914, whilst living at 12 Crosshall Lane in the town. James was wounded at Serre on the 1st July 1916, being hit in the legs by shrapnel and also fracturing his arm. He was treated at a hospital in Portsmouth, arriving there on the 8th July and leaving on the 6th September. He was then transferred to the 2nd (Garrison) Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment on the 29th September and, still in the U.K., to the 8th Battalion of the same Regiment.
He was discharged from the Army at Exeter on the 4th September 1917 due to his wounds, returning to 107 Pall Mall in Chorley; he was awarded a £60 gratuity.
In July 1917 he placed an ‘In Memoriam’ piece in the Chorley Guardian for fellow Chorley Pal, Private J. Lawrenson, who died of wounds on the 4th July 1916.
