CGMP James William Horrocks

James William Horrocks was a gunner’s mate and chief petty officer aboard the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Publicly available records do not provide his exact date of enlistment, but he was aboard the Arizona by May 1933.

Mr. Horrocks married Virginia M. Horrocks in October 1930 at San Pedro, California, home port for the battleship. 

By the time of his death, Mrs. Horrocks lived at Nogales, Arizona, where she operated a coffee shop. She enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in November 1943 and served as a private at the technical training school at Lowry Field in Colorado.

Mr. Horrocks was born Aug. 5, 1888, probably in New York state, and completed the 8th grade. 

For a few years before her death in 1971, his widow lived in the town of Patagonia, Arizona  where she published a weekly newspaper, The Patagonia Patriot. In December 1969 she wrote that her husband “believed in liberty and freedom, so much so that in 1914 he and some other like-minded Americans crossed over to Canada and joined up with the Canadian Army. He served four years with them. He still carried a piece of shrapnel in him when he went down with the Arizona. On his last leave home he said ‘the war is coming. Some of us won’t be coming back. I hope I am one of the lucky ones.’ “

The Nogales International newspaper said Mr. Horrocks served in the Princess Patricia regiment during World War I but gave no further details.

Sources: The Patagonia (Arizona) Patriot; The Nogales (Arizona) International; the (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star; Census; Navy muster rolls; POW/MIA Accounting Agency; California marriage record; grave marker; Army enlistment and discharge record. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.