JAMES EDWARD CORNISH STRANG (1903-1928)
Many members and visitors to our clubhouse at Tynedale Park may well have noticed that proudly erected in the foyer alongside our two World War commemorative plaques is a plaque in memory of J.E.C.Strang. (James Edward Cornish Strang, known as ‘Jimmy’).
The vast majority noticing this plaque will have wondered who J.E.C.Strang was and why a plaque was erected by his fellow players and friends.

The Club’s expert local historian and genealogist, Robert McFarlane, has put together the following article with extracts from the Hexham Courant which will answer a few questions and perhaps give us all the opportunity to pause in respect as we approach the anniversary of Jimmys’s death.

On 8th September 1928 at Dene Park, in summery weather, in a pre-season practice match , “Strang was a host in himself” among the forwards. He had played county rugby for the last three years.

On 22nd September 1928, against Durham City, at Hollow Drift, Durham, the team captain, Joseph Selvyn Bentham, stated that James had made a tackle in which he hurt his right thigh. When the team got back to Hexham, by train, James had to get a taxi home, because of stiffness. He was removed to hospital and operated on for empyema.
The operation made no difference; James died in Hexham War Memorial Hospital on 27th October 1928.

The Coroner Philip M.Dodds’ verdict was that “he died from septicaemia following on an accidental blow whilst playing football.”

“Amid many manifestations of sorrow, the remains of the deceased were interred in the burial ground of St John Lee.” Amongst the immediate mourners were his family, his fiancée Lil (Walton), Capt. RCO Hedley, 5th Gurkha Rifles, Mr Jos. Brunton, President of Northumberland Rugby Union, and representatives from Gosforth Nomads RFC, Durham City RFC, Armstrong College RFC, Lloyds Bank (Grey Street, Newcastle). The underbearers were from Tynedale Football Club.
The flag at the Tynedale ground, Dene Park, flew at half-mast over the week-end until after the funeral.

James was born in Shanghai in 1903. His uncle Nicholas (Cornish) had gone out to China as an engineer and his sister, Lucy, James’ mum to be, joined him some years later. She married Mr James David Nisbet Strang, also an engineer, on January 27th 1903.
Just before the outbreak of war, Mr Strang died. His widow, two children and a step-son, came to England in 1914, living first in Hexham, then Oakwood. After the war (in 1920) Lucy moved to 6 St Nicholas Road, Hexham. She died in 1965 and joined James, her son, in the burial plot, at St John Lee.

James’ step brother, 2nd/Lieutenant John Traquair Strang, aged 20 years, Royal Field Artillery, “B” Bty. 79th Bde., was killed on 18th May 1918 at Mesnil (Albert) from “twisting shrapnel”.

ARTICLE FROM THE HEXHAM COURANT (Saturday 3rd November 1929)

“The Late J. E. C. Strang
The news of the death of J. E. C. Strang last Saturday naturally caused a cancellation of Tynedale’s matches for the day.
His death followed an accidental injury sustained at Durham on September 22nd in the Tynedale – Durham City match and it was a strange coincidence that the return match should have been due to be played at Hexham on the day of his death.
Strang joined the Tynedale club on leaving school in 1920 and he was one of its keenest and most prominent members. He played in the teams which won the Northumberland Second Teams Cup in 1921, 1922 and 1923 and in the Senior Cup winning team of 1927.”
He played for Northumberland County consistently for three seasons and his form in the earlier matches this season was enough to have had made his selection this year a forgone conclusion.
His death at the early age of 25 leaves a gap that will be difficult indeed.

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Robert Macfarlane