Name
Charles Ivan Carryer
15 September 1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/08/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
East Yorkshire Regiment and R.F.C
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LEICESTER (WELFORD ROAD) CEMETERY
C.V.252
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Stained Glass Window, Hitchin Boys Grammar School, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
He was the son of Charles Borrowdale Carryer and Marian Carryer of 176, London Rd, Leicester and born on 15 September 1897.
In 1901 the family were boarding at Bank House, Droitwich, Worcestershire. Present were both parents: Charles (43) and Marian (42), with Charles and working as a hosiery manufacturer and employer. Their children were: Muriel (17) and Ivan (3) – all were recorded as born in Leicester.
He had attended the Hitchin Grammar School arriving there in the spring of 1907 into the 3rd Form. By the winter of 1907 he had dropped to the 2nd Form but in the Summer of 1908 reverted to the 3rd Form but left at the end of that term. A number of reasons could be attributed to his varying standard of progress.
By 1911 the family were living at 176 London Rd Leicester. Present were both parents, Charles now a director of hosier manufacturer and employer. The census recorded they had been married for 27 years with 3 children, of whom 1 had died. Charles was present and 13 and they had a domestic cook, Prescilla Watson (62).
His education is his connection n to Hertfordshire.
Wartime Service
Early in the Great War he had been with a Canadian unit. He was almost nineteen years of age and had been gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant on the 15th September 1915.
At the time of his death he was in the East Yorkshire Regiment and the Royal Flying Corps. He was an army officer training at the Military School, Farnborough to become a pilot and took his flying certificate in a Maurice Farman Biplane.
On the 13th August 1916 whilst flying in the vicinity of Leicester he lost his bearings and descended to enquire as to his whereabouts. On restarting he swerved to avoid contact with telegraph wires and a gust of wind partially turned the aircraft over with the result that it crashed into an outbuilding of a neighbouring house. The machine immediately caught fire and though he managed to crawl out he was severely burned. He was taken to hospital but died shortly after admission.
He was buried in Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester in Plot C, ‘U’, 252.
His funeral was reported in the Leicester Evening Mail: “A considerable number of people desirous of manifesting their sympathy gathered in front of Hampton house, London Road, the residence of the deceased parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Carryer. Tragic manner of Lieut. Carryer’s death - the sad event occurring while flying near Nottingham - intensified the feelings of regret.”
The ceremony included a firing party of the Leicestershire Regiment in charge of Captain Simpson and Lieut. H. C. Barker second in command, the band of the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment. They rendered Chopin’s “Marche Funebre” and the “Dead March” and following was a gun carriage, upon which rested the coffin, draped in the Union Jack and covered with flowers.
“Captain Baldwin and the officers and men of Lieut. Carryer's own company in the R.F.C. from a Midland airdrome, acted as bearers. Two hearses were filled by wreaths. Then came the family carriages. Inspector Dix and twelve members of the borough police force also followed.” . . . . . ”At the graveside the firing party fired three volleys, and the “Last Post” was sounded by three or four buglers.”
Th coffin inscription read “Charles Ivan Carryer, 2nd-Lieutenant E. Yorks, (R.F.C.); died on August 13th, 1916. in his 19th year”.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
