Name
Charles Edward Radford (Townsend)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/10/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2754
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY, ROUEN
B. 14. 9.
France
Headstone Inscription
THE GOLDEN GATES WERE OPEN AND A GENTLE VOICE SAID COME FROM FATHER AND MOTHER R.I.P.
UK & Other Memorials
All Saints Church Memorial, St Paul's Walden, Whitwell Village Memorial, Not on the Hitchin memorials
Pre War
Charles Edward Radford (Townsend) - he served as Radford. Hewas born in Hitchin, Herts, the son of Eliza Jane Townsend.
His mother married George Alfred Isitt in Luton in 1908. (N.B after Charles' death Eliza and George used the surname Isitt-Radford on electoral registers).
According to a local newspaper report he worked as a gardener for Viscount Hampden (at Kimpton Hoo) for two and half years before enlisting, although SDGW suggests he was living at Faversham, Kent.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted in Hertford as Private 2754 in Sep 1914 (serial 2709 was issued on 5 Sep and 3697 in Nov 1914) and joined the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment. He used the name Radford as an Alias and not the family name of Townsend. No Service Record was found for Charles. He went to France with the Battalion on 6 Nov 1914, and probably took part in the Battles of Ypres (1914), Festubert & Loos (1915).
Charles was wounded in the back of his head, probably during the Battle of Ancre Heights (Battle of the Somme), where on 14 Oct 1916 the Herts sent one platoon as reinforcement to Black Watch and Cambridgeshires to assist in the attack on the remainder of the Schwaben Redoubt. They were also being shelled heavily during this period. Charles died of his wounds on 15 Oct 1916. He is buried in St Sever Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother (Eliza Isitt) received a war gratuity of £9 and pay owing of £6 8s 11d. She ordered his headstone inscription while living at 9 Langley Road, Luton, Beds. it reads: "THE GOLDEN GATES WERE OPEN AND A GENTLE VOICE SAID COME FROM FATHER AND MOTHER R.I.P.".
N.B. it has not been possible so far to verify this soldier's birth or locate him on census records.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk
