Pte 235119 William Walter Charles

• Age: 19
• From: Stepney,Middlesex
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• Died Thursday 21st March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

William Walter Charles was born on the 02nd May 1898 in Ratcliffe, part of Stepney, London and resided in London. He was the second son of John William Charles and his wife Emma (née Spencer). He was baptised on the 22nd May in St. Dunstan's Church, Stepney, the family address at the time 3 George Street. His parents, John, born in Limehouse, and Emma, in Ratcliffe, were married on the 27th January 1896 at St Luke’s Church, Burdett Road, Limehouse. John was a 20 year old car man of 67 Thomas Street, his father, John, a caster, whilst Emma was aged 20 of 27 Northey Street, her father, Walter, a water lightman (Thames barges). They had at least 12 children. John William was born in Poplar, William Walter, and Margaret Ann, born in Limehouse.

By 1901 the family has moved to Barking in Essex, living at 13 North Street. His father is aged 24, a contractor’s carman, his mother, Emma, is also aged 24, John is aged 4, William is aged 2, and Margaret is aged 1.

May Elizabeth and Arthur George were born in Barking, and by 1906 the family had moved back to London, where George James, Violet Maud, and Richard James were born in Limehouse. 

William attended St. Mary’s School in Barking and later North Street School in Tower Hamlets for a short time.

At the time of the 1911 census, the family are living at 2 Gloucester Court, Salmon Lane, Limehouse, with eight children. Both his parents are 34 years old having been married for 15 years and have had 8 children. His father is employed as a carman to a builder. All eight children are declared in the household; his elder brother John, 14, is a biscuit baker. William is 12, Margaret 11, May 8, Arthur 7, George 5, Violet is 3 and Richard 1 year old. 

Ellen Eleanor was born later in 1911.  

By 1914 the family was living at 9 Notgrove Street, (which was formerly Salmon Lane), where Ernest was born in 1914, Robert Kitchener in July 1916, and Catherine Gladys in 1919.

He enlisted in Poplar, Middlesex in about March 1915 when he was 16 years old. He served originally as Private 13053 in the 8th Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.

He arrived in France on 17th August 1915.  At some point he was transferred to the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 235119 and subsequently to the 17th Battalion K.L.R.

His father John, at the age of 39, enlisted on the 12th December 1915 for General Service. He was mobilized on the 09th March 1917 as Private 49527 with the Royal West Surrey’s, then on the 14th May 1917 transferred as Pte 79308 to 133 Labour Corps. He served overseas, earned two medals, and was demobbed on the 11th February 1919. 

William was reported Missing between 21st - 28th March 1918, his name appearing in the Weekly Casualty List on the 28th May 1918; 

His death was later officially accepted as having occurred on 21st March 1918, he was 19 years of age.

Soldiers Effects states that he died as a Prisoner of War, but International Red Cross records do not support this.

William’s body was found by a German Sanitation Company (responsible for burial) and his pay book (their records show Reg. No.235719) and identity disc (shows 20th Bn) sent in to central office, without further details. Sadly, this grave was subsequently lost as William is now commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

William earned his three medals.

The 1939 register finds his parents once again in Barking, living in Woodward Road with George, Ernest, Catherine, and married daughter Ellen.

His father, died in 1945, aged 69.

His mother lived to the age of 93, and died in 1970, 52 years after William’s death.

William is commemorated on the Limehouse Memorial situated in St. Anne’s Church, Tower Hamlets

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