Name
Charles Joseph Sixt
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/08/1917
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
15/43209
Royal Irish Rifles
15th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MONT HUON MILITARY CEMETERY, LE TREPORT
III. B. 3A.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St James’ Church Memorial, Bushey
Pre War
Born on 15 August 1888 in St Pancras, London and baptised on 21 October 1888 in St Pancras Parish Church, Charles Joseph was and was the eldest son of Charles Joseph (Snr.) and Hannah Louisa (nee Attwood) Sixt. The baptism record gives their address as 27 Euston Street and his father’s occupation as a waiter.
The parents of Charles (Jnr.) were married in Dublin in 1887, whilst they were both working at the Shelbourne Hotel. There are entries for Charles (Snr.) in the ‘Ireland, City and Regional Directories’ for 1892, 1893 and 1894, listing him as ‘hotel manager’ at 13 Kildare Street in the centre of Dublin.
Charles (Snr.) had been born in Germany but emigrated at the age of about 14 in approximately 1876. His great granddaughter, Elizabeth Jones, has advised that the family were unable to confirm where he came from, but believed it was somewhere in Bavaria. Despite living to a reasonable old age, he appears not to have told anyone.
The family is illusive on the 1901 census and it is assumed they remained in Ireland throughout the intervening period.
At the 1911 census, Charles (Jnr.) is recorded as a 22-year-old Railway Clerk, living as a lodger with the Crawford family at 117 Villiers Road in Oxhey, Watford. He worked for the London & North Western Railway Company as a clerk in the General Manager’s Office at Euston. Elizabeth Jones also advised that Hannah’s family were all railway workers, so Charles (Jnr.) was following in that tradition.
Charles (Jnr.) married Amy May Wells on 31 October 1914 at St James’, Bushey. He was about 23 years old. It is believed they had a daughter, born in 1915, but it has not been possible to find a record to confirm this.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted in Fulham, Middlesex as Private 7282 in the 17th (County of London) Battalion (Poplar & Stepney Rifles) of the London Regiment. He was later transferred to the Royal Irish Rifles and served on the western front as Rifleman 43209 with the 15th Battalion. He died on 9 August 1917 of wounds received in action. He was 29 years old. He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals.
Charles was buried at Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport in France. He is also commemorated on the Bushey Memorial and at St James’ Parish Church, Bushey.
There is a Death announcement for Charles in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 18 August 1917.
The Registers of Soldiers’ Effects records that Charles died at No. 47 General Hospital in France and names Amy May as the sole legatee, receiving payments of £2 12s. 7d. on 14 March 1918 and £8 0s. 0d. on 21 November 1919. Amy is also named on Charles’ pension record card, with an address of 79 Glencoe Road in Bushey, and awards a pension of 13s. 9d. per week from 11 February 1918. It also records a £5 grant paid on 15 August 1917.
Amy remarried in 1921 to Frank L Houghton in the registration district of Watford. She died, aged 92, on 31 October 1982 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
Charles (Snr.) died, aged 76, in 1939 in the registration district of Bromley in Kent and Hannah died, aged 79, on 27 January 1944 in Beckenham, Kent. Elizabeth Jones, great granddaughter of Charles (Snr.), advised that he was interned during WW1 and she wrote “I find it rather moving that the father should be interned as an enemy alien while the son, who was half-German, could fight and die for Britain.”
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Elizabeth Jones Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
