| After three years as Mayor, William Alfred retired, but was far from inactive. In his latter months in office, he had built a house for himself and his young family. He acted as architect, bricklayer, carpenter and plumber and used a sixpenny manual on building which he found on an old bookstall. The house still stands. In 1939, evidently not tiring of public service, he was appointed Justice of the Peace and became a Magistrate upon the recommendation of the Earl of Sandwich. In the Second World War he served as a Captain in the home guard with the Beds and Herts regiment. In 1946, William retired as Alderman of the Borough 'to make room for a younger man'. He was later hailed as a 'Life Saving Hero', having pulled a little girl from the River Ouse. He was awarded the Royal Humane Society's Life Saving Certificate by the Mayor. The parents of the little girl, Mr & Mrs Croot, expressed their gratitude, sending £1 'which they asked should be presented to Mr James'. In his later years, William Alfred James retired to a small house on a plot of land known as 'The Island' in Godmanchester. He became a keen angler and bowler and a trustee of 'The Comrades Club'. He died at home on the Island, aged 74, on 14th August 1966. Click the picture below to read William's obituary. |
| AFTER OFFICE |
| A Godmanchester Man |
| A Godmanchester Man |
| This website tells the story of my Grandfather, William Alfred James, of Godmanchester, 1891 - 1966 |
| "Lives of great men remind all us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. |
| WILLIAM ALFRED JAMES, 1891 - 1966 |