Name
Charles (Mills) Chamberlain
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/10/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
416352
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE
Ref. V.C.36
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
North Mymms War Memorial, North Mymms War Shrine (now lost), St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, North Mymms, North Mymms Memorial Hall Memorial, Welham Green, Not on the Colney Heath memorials
Pre War
Charles’ widowed Mother remarried to a Mr Mills, who was a farm labourer, and the 1911 census shows them living at 7 Balloon Corner Welham Green with stepson John William and stepdaughter Elsie Eva. Charles was not living there at the time.
He was known locally as Charlie Mills and joined up at the outbreak of war.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted September 1914 in St. Albans, he was wounded in France in March 1915 and in 1916, the Battalion war diary records that Charles who was a bomb thrower, having qualified before returning to France, so he would have been in the thick of the fighting.
The Battalion fought in the Battle of Le Transloy on the 12th Oct where the casualties were. officers, 10 killed, 5 Died of Wounds, 2 Wounded, other ranks 242 killed, missing 51, wounded 137, shell shock 5. After the battle the Battalion was made responsible for maintenance of part of the main communication trenches, Fish Alley and Pioneer Lane. On the 21st October the Battalion was working, maintaining FLERS TRENCH (Reserve). Casualties 1 O.R. killed, 2 O.R. wounded. Charles was the other rank killed. He died of his wounds in no 36 Casualty Clearing Station
Additional Information
The North Mymms Roll of Honour lists Charles as Charles Mills Chamberlain.
Acknowledgments
Mike Allen
