Lance Serjeant 24726 Charles Fife

• Age: 24
• From: Ellesmere Port
• Regiment: 13th KLR
• Died on Wednesday 16th August 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B&8C

Charles (Charlie) Fife was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in November 1891. He was baptised on 24th January 1892 at the Ellesmere Port Primitive Methodist Circuit. His parents Alexander Fife, from Scotland, and Jessie Paterson, born in Liverpool, married in the Wirral in 1882, and had eight children, four of whom survived.  Three of the children died before Charles was born:  Jessie at age 7, Thomas at age 2 and Frank just 1 year old. Charles had an older sister Mary, and younger siblings Janet and John.  Alexander born in 1897, died in infancy.

The 1901 Census finds the family are living at Station Road, Ellesmere Port. Mother Jessie is head of the household, she is a 41 year old dressmaker. She lives with her children who were all born in Ellesmere Port and are listed as; Mary 13, Charles 9, Janet 6, and John 1. His father Alexander is a labourer at a galvanizing works, boarding at 11 Sunnyside, Ellesmere Port,

In 1911 his mother Jessie is again head of household, she states that she is married, at lives at 117 Station Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, where she is a dressmaker, employer. Charlie is 19, a clerk in an iron works. His sister Janet is 16, and John is 11.Their father is boarding with the Tillson family at 61 Cadogan Terrance in Hackney, where his married daughter Mary was living, and where he died in 1913.      

His mother died in late 1915, after which Charlie lived with Miss Davies, at 2 Meadow Lane, Ellesmere Port.

Details of his military service are not known, as his service record has not survived, but Charlie enlisted in Liverpool in the 18^th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, as Private 24726, earned promotion to Corporal, and was subsequently transferred to the 13^th Bn K.L.R., earning promotion to Lance Sergeant.  He went to France in about July 1916, in time for the Battle of the Somme.

On 13^th July the battalion was involved in the successful attack on the German front line at Bazentin-Le-Grand and later assisted in the attack on Delville Wood.  After some time in billets at Ville-Sur-Ancre, the battalion bivouacked at Sandpits on 11^th August, and arrived in the front line trenches at 1.00 a.m. on 15^th August.  On 16^th August the battalion attacked the German front line south of Guillemont.  The battalion War Diary for that day reports ‘Casualties heavy’.  Lance Sergeant Charles Fife was one of those lost in that action.  His body was never recovered and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Somme.  He was 24.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His death was announced in the Chester Chronicle on 16^th September 1916: 

“Ellesmere Port’s Roll of Honour continues to grow, and we regret to announce the death of Sergeant Charles Fife, one of the best lads Ellesmere Port has known.  He was in the Liverpool Regiment (the “Pals”), and official news has come through that he was killed in action on the 16^th August.  Up to the time of their deaths, his parents lived in Ellesmere Port, and will be remembered as far back as 30 years, Charlie was their eldest son and lived with Miss Davies, 2 Meadow Lane, with whom, and his relatives, great sympathy is felt. Deceased was a clerk in the employ of the Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Co., and was very popular with all who knew him.  He had only been out at the front about a month. Had he been spared he would have been 25 in November. In his last letter to Miss Davies, dated August 4^th, he writes most cheerily and says the chaps were at that time discussing the merits of the Liverpool and Everton football teams. He also mentioned how pleased he was that one of the officers of his old battalion was now with them.  Sergeant Fife volunteered for service abroad as all his pals had gone.”

Charles’ effects went to his married sisters Mary and Janet and his brother John.

On the anniversary of his death one year later, in the Liverpool Echo (perhaps from one of his Pals): 

“To the memory of Lance Sergeant Charles Fife who fell in action August 16, 1916. – H. and D.P. (Prescot)”

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