1885 - 1916
CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916
Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916
Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916
Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918
Pte 203049 Charles Henry Bishop
- Age: 28
- From: Kendal
- Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
- K.I.A Friday 22nd March 1918
- Commemorated at: Savy Brit Cem
Panel Ref: I.G.24
Charles Henry was born in Kendal on the 01st May 1889 and baptised on 28th May 1893 at Kendal. He was the son of Charles Bishop and his wife Sarah Ellen (nee Lishman) who had married in 1888 at Kendal. Charles was the eldest of their five children; his siblings were Charlotte Ellen (who died in infancy), Nellie Elizabeth, Robert Hermiston (died in infancy), all born in Kendal.
By 1899 the family had moved to Northampton, where Beatrice Hollis was born.Charles senior, was born in Northampton, which was famous for its shoe industry. By 1401 the city had established a Guild of Shoemakers and from the 16th century an important shoe and boot trade developed. During the First World War, the shoemakers of Northamptonshire supplied over 50 million pairs of boots to the military.Charles senior had enlisted in the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1884 when he was 18, occupation rivetter. He was 5' 3" tall, weighed 115 lbs, with a "face pitted with smallpox". He deserted in 1886, which may explain why he found his way to Kendal, where his wife Sarah was born, and which also had a thriving shoe industry.The 1891 census finds one-year old Charles with his parents, both 26 years old, at 13 Far Cross Bank W., in Kendal, where his father is working as a boot rivetter. In 1899-90 the family moved to Northampton with Charles, Nellie, and baby Beatrice.The Proceedings of the Northampton Borough Petty Sessions were reported in the local paper on 13th April 1900:"After Many Days. - Charles Bishop (34), laster, 18, Deal Street, was charged with deserting from the Northamptonshire Regiment while stationed at Preston, on the 06th of May 1886. Police Sergeant White said that prisoner gave himself up at the Police Station, stating that his wife and children were ill and that he could not keep them. Prisoner was remanded for a week pending enquiries."Another newspaper article reported:"Deserting a Wife and Children.
- Charles Bishop (34), laster, Bigg Market, Newcastle-on-Tyne, was charged on remand with running away and leaving his wife and three children chargeable to the common fund of the Northampton Union, on the 11th of April last. Mr. W. Fawkes, clerk to the Northampton Board of Guardians, prosecuted. Mr. E. Abell said that defendant's wife and children were admitted to the Workhouse on the 11th of April. One of the children died six weeks later, and the cost of the maintenance of the family up to date had been about £37. Sentenced to three months' hard labour."Baby Beatrice died in the Workhouse when she was one year old.At the time of the 1901 census, Charles, 11, his mother Sarah Ellen, 36, and sister Nellie (listed as Ellen), 5, are inmates in the Northampton Workhouse. His father has not been found on the census.His mother died later that year, at the age of 36. It is not known how long Charles and Nellie spent in the workhouse, but they both eventually returned and settled in Kendal.
Charles Henry married Ellen Ducksbury, who worked as a boot machinist, in the fourth quarter of 1910. Ellen had a son, Frank Ducksbury, born on 03rd July 1907.
The 1911 census finds him living with his wife, Ellen at his widowed mother in law's property at 30 Nether Street, Kendal. He is listed as son in law and is 23 years of age and his occupation is shown as a boot rivetter in a boot and shoe factory. Ellen is 27, and her son Frank is 3. Three of Ellen's siblings live at home. Catherine, 24, and Charles, 21, also work in a boot and shoe factory, and William, 19, is a cabinet maker.
Charles and Ellen had three children: Catherine, born on 03/02/1912, Irene 10/03/1914, and Norman 15/07/1916.
In 1911 Charles senior, 45, is living at 80 Glassbrook Road in Rushden (east of Northampton), employed as a shoemaker (laster). Daughter Nellie is 15, working as a shoeroom girl. Listed as wife is Elizabeth Whiting, a 44-year old widow, with her children William, Herbert, Frank, and May Whiting, and children Beatrice Leonara, 7, Harold, 6, Lottie Jane, 4, and Phyllis, 1, all listed as Bishop but births registered as Whiting. Another son, Percy Arthur Bishop Whiting, was born in 1913.
Charles senior had remarried Elizabeth Whiting in 1914 (the reason for the delay in marrying is not known).
K Shoes originated in Kendal and was a major employer in the area. The outbreak of war in 1914 saw the factory emptied of all able bodied men of fighting age, and the women and older men were left working on “K Marching Boots”, leather leggings, “K Service Boots for Officers”, and major contracts for the French and Russian Armies. (https://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk)
The Battalion diary gives an overview of the events of the 22nd March 1918 as follows:
22nd GERMAINE – HAM- MOYENCOURT
The battalion moved up accordingly being in position at 6:30 a.m. About 3pm the enemy attacked the left of our position and advanced on our left flank towards FLUQUIERES. At 4:30 pm an attack was launched on our front and the enemy forced his way through on our right. The remainder of the Battalion was forced to retire to south of FLUQUIERES. During this engagement the Battalion lost 11 Officers and About 21 O.R. The order was given to retire to the defences at HAM. The Battalion by this time was very weak, and passing through the 20th Division took up positions in HAM, as ordered, getting into position at 2am.
Charles was listed originally posted as Missing.
His wife, at 30 Nether Street, Kendal, made enquiries with the International Red Cross and was informed that Charles was not being held as a Prisoner of War. The Germans evidently found his body. A further note states that his paybook was sent in from the Seminary at Münster. German records held by the IRC show that Charles was killed on 23rd March 1918 at Castle Pommery, near Vaux, no further details available. British War Office records show his death was presumed to have occurred on or since 22nd March 1918.
Charles now rests at Savy British Cemetery, France.
Savy was taken by the 32nd Division on the 1st April 1917, after hard fighting, and Savy Wood on the 2nd. On the 21st March 1918 Savy and Roupy were successfully defended by the 30th Division, but the line was withdrawn after nightfall. The village and the wood were retaken on the 17th September 1918 by the 34th French Division, fighting on the right of the British IX Corps.
Savy British Cemetery was made in 1919, and the graves from the battlefields and from the following small cemeteries in the neighbourhood were concentrated into it:-
DALLON GERMAN CEMETERY, North-West of the village of Dallon, contained the graves of 21 British soldiers who fell in March 1918.
INNISKILLINGS CEMETERY, DALLON, on the South side of a small wood, North of the St. Quentin-Savy road. Here the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, in April 1917, buried 17 of their number, three other British soldiers and one French Interpreter.
LANCASHIRE CEMETERY, on the East side of SAVY WOOD, made by the 16th Lancashire Fusiliers in April 1917, and contained the graves of 27 men of the 15th and 16th Lancashire Fusiliers and nine other British soldiers.
ST. QUENTIN-ROUPY ROAD GERMAN CEMETERY, at L'Epine-de-Dallon, which contained the graves of 232 British soldiers who fell in March 1918.
SAVY COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, made in April 1917, contained 14 British graves.
SAVY MILITARY CEMETERY, close to Savy Church. It was made in April and May 1917 by the 97th Brigade and other units, and it contained 39 British graves.
SAVY WOOD NORTH CEMETERY, at the North-West corner of Savy Wood, by the railway line. It was made by the 32nd Division in April and May 1917, and it contained 44 British graves.
There are now over 850, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, more than half are unidentified. Memorials are erected in the cemetery to 68 soldiers (chiefly of the 19th King's Liverpools and the 17th Manchesters), buried by the Germans in their cemetery on the St. Quentin-Roupy road, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
The Cemetery covers an area of 2,555 square metres and is enclosed by a low rubble wall.
His children were 6, 4, and not yet two years old when Charles was killed.
His widow Ellen received his outstanding Army pay and a War Gratuity of £5-10s. She was initially awarded a pension of $1-13s-9d a week from December 1918 (still living at her family home, 30 Nether Street). The pension was later increased, and subsequently changed to an Alternative Pension of £2-2s-11d plus £1-12s-2d.
His widow, Ellen, then aged 55, was still at 30 Nether Street in 1939, with sons Frank Ducksbury, 32, and Norman Bishop, 23, (both of whom worked in the boot and shoe industry), and married daughter Irene Barber and her husband. Catherine, by then Lambert, lived nearby with her family at 15 Nether Street.
In 1939 his father was 73, and still working as a shoe hand (lasting room), living at 92 Wellingborough Road with wife Elizabeth and son Percy Bishop, 26, also a shoe hand (welting room). Charles senior appears to have died in 1950 at the age of 85.
In 1947 his son Norman sailed to Halifax, Canada with his wife Nancy (their address 30 Nether street), intended residence U.S.A.
His sister Nellie's second husband, Herbert Arthur Studholme, enlisted in Carlisle in 1916 and served in the K.L.R. He was posted to the 17th Pals Bn. in 1918 and survived service in Russia.
His widow, Ellen died in 1966, aged 82.
We currently have no further information on Charles Henry Bishop, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.Killed On This Day.
(108 Years this day)Sunday 22nd April 1917.
Pte 52865 Hyman Barnett Gadansky
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(107 Years this day)
Monday 22nd April 1918.
Pte 136181 Edwin Williams
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