Name
Charles Stanley Pinnock
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/10/1914
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
11259
Worcestershire Regiment
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Panel 17 and 18
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Welwyn Village Memorial, Welwyn, St Mary the Virgin Roll of Honour, Welwyn
Pre War
Charles Stanley Pinnock was born in Norwich in 1889, the son of Thomas and Mary Ann/Madeleine Pinnock and one of three children.
On 6 October 1899 Charles (10) and his younger brother Victor (3) were recorded as having been admitted to the Westminster Workhouse by their parents Thomas and Mary Ann. The following month, Charles was listed on the Register of the Ashford School, West London [Workhouse Residential School], having been discharged on 23 November 1899 to his parents Thomas and Mary Ann. On the same day, his sister (Mary) Madeleine was admitted to the Workhouse, She had been born on 1 May 1898,
By the 1901 Census the family were all together, living at 22 Peabody Buildings, Old Rye Street, Westminster, London, where his father's occupation was given as Clerk Office.
It seems that Charles and his family left England sometime after 1901 and settled in South Africa which is where Charles joined the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment at Wynberg, Cape Colony. His regimental number of 11259 suggests that he enlisted sometime between February 1908 and January 1909. The 3rd Battalion had been sent to South Africa in 1907 because of trouble with the native tribes and were selected as they were acknowledged to be the best shooting battalion in Great Britain. They spent a year at Wynberg but the expected problems did not materialise and when they returned to England Charles returned with them. The rest of his family remained in South Africa.
He married Alice Ethel Hipgrave in late 1910 at Welwyn and both were given as ‘of this parish’. She already had a daughter Doris Hipgrave born in London on 15 October 1907 and son Stanley Charles Hipgrave born in Welwyn on 9 October 1910. Stanley’s baptism record gives his parent as 'Ethel Hipgave, afterwards Pinnock’. From his Christian names it is seems likely that he was the son of Charles Stanley Pinnock but born shortly before his parents married.
On the 1911 Census Charles was with the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, stationed at Dover Castle, with his age given as 21. Despite his marriage in late 1910 he was stated to be single. In the same year his wife Alice and her children Doris and Stanley, were listed as boarders at ‘The Chequers’ public house in Church Street, Welwyn. She was said to be married and a Soldier’s Wife, having been married less than one year. They later had another child Thomas William born 7 September 1912, but sadly son Stanley Charles died on 29 July 1915.
His widow later lived at Moor Cottages, Welwyn, Herts and his mother's address on CWGC is given Reitz St, Riversdale, Cape Province.
Wartime Service
As a serving soldier, Charles was sent to France immediately upon the outbreak of war in August 1914. The 3rd Battalion, which was stationed at Tidworth, Wiltshire left for Southampton on 13 August and sailed on the S S Bosnian for France the following day, arriving at Le Havre on 15 August. The ship then sailed up the Seine and arrived at Rouen on 16 August.
He fought in the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau and some of the first fighting at Ypres.
He was killed in action on the 24th October 1914. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £9 16s 3d. She also received a pension of £1 0s 6d a week in respect of herself and her children.
His brother Edwin Victor, who served with the South African Mounted Rifles, died on 28 August 1916, aged 20, from wounds received during the fighting in Tanzania, then German East Africa and is buried in Iringa Cemetery, Tanzania.
Charles is listed in The National Roll of the Great War and his address was given as 13 College Place, St Albans.
N.B. on some records Charles is known by his second name of Stanley.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Paul Jiggens, Welwyn and District History Society - www.welwynww1.co.uk, Brenda Palmer
