• James Matthew Blythe •

Birth Name: James Matthew 'Jem' Blythe

Date of Birth: June 1892

Birth Location: Glen St. Mary, Four Winds, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Parents: Gilbert and Anne Blythe

Spouse: Faith Meredith

Children: Walter

Siblings: Joyce 'Joy', Anne 'Nan', Diana 'Di', Walter Cuthbert, Shirley, Bertha Marilla 'Rilla'

Location: Four Winds (House of Dreams), Glen St. Mary (Ingleside)

Hair colour: Red

Eye colour: Hazel

In Books: Anne's House of Dreams (1917), Anne of Ingleside (1939), Rainbow Valley (1919), Rilla of Ingleside (1920), The Road to Yesterday (1974)

Quote: "Jem was the child of the House of Dreams. All the others had been born at Ingleside. He had curly red hair, like his mother's, and frank hazel eyes, like his father's; he had his mother's fine nose and his father's steady, humorous mouth...He was and always had been a sturdy, reliable little chap. He never broke a promise. He was not a great talker. His teachers did not think him brilliant, but he was a good, all-round student. He never took things on faith; he always liked to investigate the truth of a statement for himself...He could mimic the call of any wild bird or beast in Four Winds and he knew the haunt of every wild flower from spring to autumn." (Chapter 3, Rainbow Valley)

"But Jem sprang up with a gay laugh. He stood up on a little hillock, tall and splendid, with his open brow and his fearless eyes. There were thousands like him all over the land of the
maple." (Chapter 35, Rainbow Valley)

"Jem and Jerry went to Charlottetown that night and two days later they came back in khaki. The Glen hummed with excitement over it. Life at Ingleside had suddenly become a tense, strained, thrilling thing...Jem certainly looked magnificent in his uniform. It was splendid to think of the lads of Canada answering so speedily and fearlessly and uncalculatingly to the call of their country. Rilla carried her head high among the girls whose brothers had not so responded." (Chapter 5, Rilla of Ingleside)

Background: Shortly after Jem's birth, the Blythe family move to Ingleside in October of that year. He is the older brother who not only has a thirst for adventure, but also for knowledge. Jem has a knack for science, and he loves experimenting and finding things out for himself, "[h]e never took things on faith; he always liked to investigate the truth of a statement for himself." He's also very thoughtful, bringing his mother Mayflowers every spring and on occasions, like the apple blossoms he gave her during her visit at Green Gables (Anne of Ingleside) and the pearl necklace he gave her on her birthday. As a kid, he is one of the 'older kids' who knew all there was to know, "He could mimic the call of any wild bird or beast in Four Winds and he knew the haunt of every wild flower from spring to autumn", someone the younger children looked up to. Jem is very fond of animals, especially dogs. Throughout the series, he has three dogs name Gyp, Bruno and Dog Monday. He atttends Queen's Academy and graduates from Redmond College in Arts before starting his first year of medicine. He wishes to follow his father's shoes in becoming a doctor. However, WWI disrupts all his plans and puts his future on hold. Jem enlists in August of 1914 but not before he is engaged to Faith Meredith. A little over a year before the end of the war, Jem is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Unfortunately, he is reported as missing in action in May of 1918. It is discovered later that Jem was captured and placed into a German P.O.W. camp situated in the Netherlands along with Stephen Barry. He manages to escape from the camp on September 24, just over a month before Armistice Day, and he sends a telegram home, "Just arrived. Escaped from Germany. Quite well. Writing. James Blythe." A surviving soldier of the Great War, he finally reaches home in mid-spring of 1919 to his anxious family and waiting fianceé. Jem and Faith later have a son named after his brother, Walter.

Last updated: August 9, 2006
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