Name
Charles William Archdale
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/11/1917
39
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Norfolk Regiment
5th Bn., attached 7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL
Panel 4.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Haileybury College Cloister Wall Memorial, Hertford Heath
Pre War
Born on 18 Aug 1878 in Coltishall, Norfolk son of Major Charles Wells, who served with the Shropshire Light Infantry, and Emilia Jane (daughter of Sir William Bagge) Archdale. Educated at Suffolk Park School, Suffolk and Haileybury College 1892-96.
He served in the South African (Boer) War 1988-1902 as a Trooper with the Imperial Yeomanry and received the Queen's Medal with three clasps.
He married Evelyn Frances Taddy (daughter of E Glynn Taddy on 29 Sep 1903 at Biggleswade and had five sons.
Wartime Service
He joined the Public Schools O.T.C. in August 1914, was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in Nov 1914, promoted to Lieutenant in March 1915 and to Captain in April 1916. He entered France in April 1917 and was killed in action at Cambrai in November 1916. His Colonel wrote: "He was doing splendid work at the time, and his company, owing to the excellent training he had given them, did even more than was expected of them," and his old Commanding Officer "As his old Commanding Officer, who gave him his commission, I feel his death very deeply. Besides being popular with his brother officers, he was much loved by his men," One of his subalterns also wrote: "He will alwqays be my Captain. All I ever learnt in the Army was from him, and we all jolly well looked up to him . . . .He was every inch a soldier, and died just as he would have wished. His boys will grow up proud in that memory," and another: "His death was a tremendous blow to the regiment, as he was a top-hole fellow, always cool as a cucumber, nothing could upset him."
The Hertfordshire Express carried this notice on the 8th of December 1917:
"We regret to state that Captain Charles W. Archdale, son-in-law of Mrs. E. Glyn Taddy, Caldecote Lodge, Biggleswade, was killed in action in France on November 20. He has been on the Western Front since April with the Norfolk Regiment, but enlisted as a private at the commencement of the war. He leaves a widow and five sons. He was a near relative of the Archdales of Baldock, and the Lindsells of Biggleswade."
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners
Malcolm Lennox, Karen Smith - Acting Director of External Relations www.haileybury.com/honour
