At the start of 1918 Portland quarry worker Jim Sansom had been a stretcher bearer in the heat of Egypt for two years. He writes: “Twenty of our fellows got typhus and four died in January but after isolation and rest we were marching back to the front by early Spring”

James was born in 1895 into a Portland Baptist family. At the age of 17 he want to work in Pearce's Quarry with his father and brothers as one of the family crews where sons learned their father's trades.

He enlisted with 230 Field Ambulance, British Expeditionary Force and was posted to Sidi Bichr Camp in Alexandria in 1916 following the evacuation of Gallipoli and spent most of the war in this region. Thanks to Portland Museum who have his war diary on display.