Name
Charles Henry Potts
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/10/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
22561
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN
R. III. C. 2.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, Not on the Great Gaddesden memorials
Pre War
Charles Henry Potts was born in early 1897 in Great Gaddesden, Herts, the son and only child of Henry and Annie Potts, and baptised there on 4 July 1897.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 65 Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Builder's Carter.
They had moved to 15 Herbert Street, Hemel Hempstead by 1911. His father was a Builder's Labourer and his mother, his cousin Edith and Alice Batchelor, a boarder, were all working at Apsley Mills for John Dickinson & Co., paper manufacturer. Charles was still at school in 1911 but it is not known where he worked prior to enlistment.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted in Luton in October 1915 and joined the Machine Gun Corps, probably being sent to Grantham to the Machine Gun Training Centre at Belton Park. He would have been sent to France when he reached the age of 19 in the summer of 1917.
He later transferred to the 4th Bedfordshire Regiment and was in action the Battles of the Somme. He was wounded in the Battle of the Canal du Nord on 27 September and was taken to a Base Hospital in Rouen but he died of his wounds on 3 October 1918 and is buried in St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £13 10s and pay owing of £13 5s 3d. She also received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelatwar.org.
