Name
Charles Petts
23/07/1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/03/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
126935
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
59th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
H.A.C. CEMETERY, ECOUST-ST. MEIN
Queant German Cem. Mem. 28.
France
Headstone Inscription
Queant German Cemetery Memorial 28.
UK & Other Memorials
Standon War Memorial, St Mary’s Church Memorial, Standon, Standon Village Hall, Standon, Puckeridge Village Memorial, Cheshunt Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Cheshunt
Pre War
Charles, born in July 1895, was the son of Ramah and Ellen Petts (nee Camp). Ellen had died in early 1891, when Charles was only five years old and only a few months after the death of her 17-year-old first-born, David. They appear on the same page in the burial register.
The family, who lived in Latchford for many years consisted of seven children, all born and baptised in the village. Father Ramah (or as it was more usually spelt phonetically, Raymer) was a Labourer and by 1911, he was described as a Stockman and was living at Frogs Hall near Broken Green with three of his adult children, Charles himself, aged 25, a farm labourer and an elder sister and brother.
We know from the article below that Charles had married and that his wife lived in Cheshunt, but at present, Mrs Petts cannot be positively identified, and we do not know if there were any children of the marriage.
Wartime Service
Charles Petts was formerly No. 48300 in the Bedfordshire Regiment and then Private No. 126935 in 59th Battalion, the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry). He was wounded on 21st March 1918, was recorded as a Prisoner of War on the 24th March 1918 and died of his wounds on 25th March 1918 at the age of 33.
His service record has not survived but it seems he enlisted at Cheshunt into the Bedfordshire Regiment but at some point was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.
As referred to in the obituary below, the date he was wounded was the start of the last major German offensive, an attempt to break the deadlock before the Americans joined the fight. In the early morning of 21st March, the Germans launched the biggest bombardment of the whole war, which included gas shells. The five hours of shelling was followed by a German infantry assault with specially trained ‘stormtroopers’, under cover of a thick fog.
To quote a passage from ‘Chronicles of the Great War’ by Peter Simkins,
“By the evening it was obvious that the BEF was facing one of its worst crises of the war. Although the first day’s operations had cost the Germans nearly 40,000 casualties, the British had lost over 38,000 men, together with up to 500 guns. The fact that the British casualty figures included some 21,000 who had been taken prisoner showed that many tired British battalions had temporarily reached the limits of endurance and resistance.”
The brief obituary in the Herts & Essex Observer dated 17th August 1918 states:
Standon – Death of Gunner Charles Petts. - Gunner Charles Petts, second son of Mr Ramah Petts, of Frogs Hall, Standon, enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps last year. He had only been at the front a few weeks when he fell mortally wounded at the big German offensive on March 21st. He was removed to a field hospital and succumbed on March 25th. Prior to enlistment he worked at a munition factory. His wife, who resides at Cheshunt, only received official news of his death recently. The deceased, who has an elder brother in the Beds Regiment, was 33 years of age.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website says that after the Armistice, graves were added at Ecoust St Mein, from the battlefields at Bullecourt and Ecoust and from 13 smaller burial grounds, one of which was Queant German Cemetery, which contained the graves of 22 soldiers of the United Kingdom, who fell in March 1918. Charles Petts was probably one of these.
Additional Information
His effects of £5-02-08, pay owing and his war gratuity of £3, went to his widow Emily Petts, of 2 Cecil Cottages, Flamstead End, Cheshunt, Herts.
Note: A direct connection to Puckeridge has not been established, but this man is the most likely candidate.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Di Vanderson, Jonty Wild
