James Finn served as a Territorial Force soldier with the 5th Battalion, DCLI before moving to the South Wales Valleys looking for work.

[1] On the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914, he immediately enlisted with the local regiment, the South Wales Borderers, and was duly posted to their 4th (Service) Battalion.

After a night attack he was one of a small party which dug-in in front of our advanced line and about 300 yards from the enemy's trenches.

He was under continuous fire while performing this gallant work.Fynn was decorated with the ribbon of the VC by Lt Gen Sir Frederick Stanley Maude at Amara on 5 November 1916.

[6] The VC was presented to his father at a public investiture in Hyde Park on 2 June 1917 by King George V.[7] Fynn was also mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette, 19 October 1916).

[citation needed] Whilst his body was never returned to Cornwall he is remembered on his father's headstone in Bodmin Cemetery.