Pte 235281 Charles Henry Bitten

• Age: 27
• From: Pidley, Hunts
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Friday 21st September 1917
• Commemorated at: Torreken Farm
  Panel Ref: E.11

Charles (Charley) Henry Bitten was born in 1890 in Pidley, Huntingdon, the son of Harry Bitten and his wife Frances Elizabeth (née Wittamore).  His father was born in Pidley, and his mother in Bedfordshire. They married in Bedfordshire in 1884 and had ten children. Charley had older siblings Walter, George William, and Hilda 1888, and younger siblings Amy, Dora, Gladys, Arthur, Harry, and Bertie, all born in Pidley.

At the time of the 1891 census the family is resident in The Butcher’s Arms in Huntingdon Road, Pidley.  His father is a general labourer. They have four children, Charles is one year old.

In 1901 they are still at the Butcher’s Arms. His father is the publican and also employed as a porter(?) on a farm. They have nine children, Charles is 10.  His elder brothers Walter, 15, and George, 14, are agricultural labourers.

Walter emigrated to Canada in 1905.

His younger brother Arthur died at age 9 in 1906.

The 1911 census finds them still living at the Butcher’s Arms. His father, 50, is no longer a publican, but is now employed as a farm shepherd and jobbing gardener.  His mother is 53, George, 24, is a farm labourer, Charley is 20, occupation illegible, Dora, 17, has no occupation, and  Harry, 11, and Bertie, 9, are at school.

He enlisted in Huntingdon on 29^th January, 1915 aged 25 years and two months,occupation labourer, he was five feet five and half inches tall, had a fresh complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was serving as Private 1239 in the 2nd Huntingdonshire (Reserve) Cyclist Battalion and was discharged on the 08^th March, 1915 on medical grounds (mitral valvular disease of the heart).

Proceedings of the District Military Tribunal were reported in the Cambridge Independent Press on 10th March 1916:  “Charles Bitten (26), cowman, of Pidley, was granted an absolute exemption.”

Despite his exemption, Charley enlisted again and served as Private 2451 in the Yorkshire Regiment. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for just over a year, enlisting in about August 1916.

He was transferred to the 18^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 235281. He was killed in action on the 21^st September 1917, aged 27, during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

18^th Battalion War Diary for 21^st September 1917

Parr Torreken Farm

9.30 pm

Relieved 2^nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment in support to Left Battalion, Right Brigade. Enemy shelled area heavily during relief.

Casualties  

Killed

235281 Pte C. H. Bitten

29693 Pte J. Lyon

307277 Pte H. Clifford

57589 Pte H. A. Dodd

300042 Pte W.H. Reed

300040 Pte J. Boon 

Charley now rests at Torreken Farm Cemetery No 1, Wytschaete, Belgium.

Wytschaete was taken by the Germans early in November 1914, and was recovered by Commonwealth forces during the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917, but fell into German hands once more on 16 April 1918. The village was retaken for the last time on 28 September.  The cemetery, begun by the 5th Dorset Regiment in June 1917 and used as a front line cemetery until April 1918, contains 90 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 14 German war graves.

Charley's name appeared in the list of K.L.R. Killed published in the Weekly Casualty List on 23rd October 1917.

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £3-10s went to his father Harry.

The pension card in the name of his mother shows that she was awarded a pension of 3/6d a week from September 1918.  After her death in 1923 aged 68, his father, address Butcher’s Arms, Pidley, continued to receive the pension until he died in 1930 aged 70.

Charley's cousin Fred Bitten R.N., aged 20, from Pidley, was killed on H.M.S. Hawke on 15th October 1914.  Fred is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

His brother George had also emigrated to Canada. His son Flight Sgt. Frederick Charles Bitten of the R.C.A.F. was killed on 07th February 1943 when his Wellington bomber took off from a base in Yorkshire for mine laying operations in the Frisian Islands and was lost without a trace. Frederick, 23, is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey.

Charley is commemorated on the Pidley-Cum-Fenton War Memorial. 

We currently have no further information on Charles Henry Bitten, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.