Name
Charles Titmuss (1)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Machin Gun Corps
59th Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial - see text
Biography
There is a question mark over the number of men called Charles Titmuss who served. There are two Charles Titmuss' listed on the School War Memorial, confirming that two men definitely served and both went to the school. Various Parish Magazines refer to one who served in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), and the late Edna Titmuss recalled that one joined up in 1915 and served in the Transport Corps. She also thought that, at some time, he suffered from Malaria and that in 1918 he went to Ireland. So, some of this information is contradictory and appears to be transposed between the two men identified here, and some cannot definitely be attributed to either of the men. It is possible that there could be a third Charles Titmuss who served. However, the only other potential Charles Titmuss identified so far was the son of Matthew and Eliza (née Weeden). This would mean that he would have been about forty-two at the outbreak of war, and probably too old to have served unless he had previous military service. At present, the information available is not considered strong enough evidence to confirm a third man and so, at this time, the reference to the RFA is considered to be spurious.
One of the newspaper articles and the 1918 Absent Voters’ List confirm that one Charles lived in Holwell Road. The 1901 census records that Arthur and Ann Titmuss (née Chamberlain) had a son, Charles, and were living in Holwell Cottages, which are the terraced cottages in Holwell Road, also known as the ‘Twelve Apostles’. For this reason, it is almost certain that it is their son Charles who served, and he was born on January 7th 1883. Baptism and census records support this, including the 1911 census which lists Charles and his wife (although now living in Walkers Cottages). The only doubt is that his age on his enlistment papers does not tie in with this information. However, as his wife and children are confirmed, it must be concluded that his age on the service records is wrong.
Baptism records list three children for Arthur and Ann: Lydia (b 1880), Charles (b 1883) and Albert Hezekiah (bapt 1885) and the 1901 census records Edward as another son, born in 1884 or 1885. Edward also served in the war.
Charles married Jane Odell in Islington on June 23rd 1907, and they had two children: Hilda (b 1907) and Kathleen Annie (b 1909). In 1911 Charles was twenty-eight and the family was living in one of Walker’s Cottages. Charles was working and earning a living as a farm labourer on one of the local farms. Sometime later he moved back to Holwell Road and had become a bricklayers' labourer for Mr Souster, a builder from Letchworth.
He enlisted in Bedford on December 11th 1915, joining the Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 31482. The papers show his age as one month short of thirty-four, but that should read one month short of thirty-two.
He was mobilised on September 1st 1916, and was then posted to the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) in November as Private 67956. He joined the 2nd Battalion, MGC on January 26th 1917, went to France on the 29th 1917 and transferred to the 97th Company on February 22nd 1917.
The Hertfordshire Express of April 28th 1917 reports that he had recently written to his wife, living in Holwell Road, to tell her he had been injured, ‘We were asleep in the dug-out, so the shell came as a surprise. I happened to be the unlucky one to get hurt.’ This was on April 13th 1917, which was confirmed by an earlier letter from the sister in charge of the Field Ambulance he was taken to. This letter also confirms that he had been wounded in the left side. Soon afterwards he was home on hospital leave and spent the period between May 5th and August 26th 1917 in England recovering. At least seven days in June were spent in Pirton. Charles obviously recovered as he returned to France on August 27th. On March 24th 1918, soon after the start of the major German spring offensive, he was reported as missing. That information had reached Pirton by April 5th, and Jane had a very worrying twelve weeks of not knowing what had happened to him. To what must have been her great relief, Charles managed to get a postcard to her in July telling her that he was a prisoner of war in Limburg. This is possibly the prison camp at Limburg an der Lahn, which sometimes appears as Limbury an der Lahn. If so, his time there may have overlapped with Arthur Pearce, who also appears to have been imprisoned in that camp.
He was released at the end of the war and reached England in December 1918, transferring to the 59th Company, MGC before finally being demobilised from the 11th Reserve Battalion, MGC on October 15th 1919. His records show that he was considered to have suffered a disability of forty percent due to the affects of contusion and crushing.
He died January 28th 1954, aged seventy, and is buried in St. Mary’s churchyard. The headstone also records his wife Jane who died April 24th 1966 aged eighty-four.
Additional Information
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
