Name
Charles Golding
1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/10/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33173
Leicestershire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TERLINCTHUN BRITISH CEMETERY, WIMILLE
VIII. C. 25.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, Memorial Plaque in Ringing Chamber, St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead
Pre War
Charles Golding was born in Hemel Hempstead in 1877, the son of Henry and Caroline Golding and baptised there on 28 September 1877. He was one of 12 children but 4 had died before 1911.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at Bury Mill Hill, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a General Labourer. They remained in Bury Mill Hill in 1891, living at No. 21 and his father was then a Gas Works Labourer.
He was educated at Bury Mill End school and left in 1891 to work as an agricultural labourer on a nearby farm.
By 1901 the family had moved to No. 36 Bury Road and Charles was then working as a agricultural labourer. They remained at no. 36 in 1911 but Charles had changed his occupation to Carman.
He was a bell ringer with his father at St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead for several years and was a member of the bell ringers who took part in a three hour peal of continuous ringing in 1898. There were further such events in 1905 and 1908 when they rang Stedman Triples and 'Peal Boards' in the ringing chamber commemorate these events.
His father died in 1910, aged 68 and his mother in 1912, aged 62, both are buried in Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hemel Hempstead in 1916 and served initially with the Bedfordshire Regiment. under reg. no. 6520, later transferring to the 8th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment.
He would have fought in the Arras Offensive in 1917 and the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). In 1918 they were in action on the Somme, but at some point he was injured and taken prisoner.
He died as a prisoner of war on 23 October 1918 and is buried at Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France. (N.B. He had previously been interred in Charleville Communal Cemetery, France but was exhumed and reinterred at Terlincthun with others in 1962)
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £14 10s and pay owing of £24 19s 2d was divided equally between his sisters Kate, Minnie & Lily. In 1920 there was a commemorative service at St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead for Charles attended by bell ringers from Hemel Hempstead and surrounding areas. There is a memorial plaque in the ringing chamber of St Mary's Church, to commemorate the ringing of a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples on the second anniversary of his death as a prisoner of war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com., bb.ringingworld.co.uk,
