Name
Charles Thomas Baxter
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Staff Surgeon
Royal Navy
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
The Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour first recorded Charles Baxter serving as a Staff Surgeon aboard HMS “Attentive” in September 1914. It has been difficult to establish his association with the village, however he was recorded in the Parish Roll of Honour each month throughout the Great War period.
One possible association might be that a William Farrington Baxter was recorded in the 1911 Census living at “The Crossways”, Abbots Road, Abbots Langley. He had been born in Islington in 1873, and Charles may have been related, possibly a brother or cousin. William lived in Abbots Langley with his wife, Maude , two daughters, a son and two servants. He worked as a Merchant, however no further details have been identified, and little information relating to Charles has been found.
From the Navy Lists at the National Archives a Charles Thomas Baxter was serving from 2nd August 1900, and this person gained the rank of Surgeon, and eventually Staff Surgeon. In September 1914 Charles Baxter was serving aboard HMS “Attentive”. In September 1915 the cruiser HMS “Attentive” supported a naval bombardment of the German defences at Ostend on the Belgian coast, when it was bombed by an aircraft – one of the first ships to be bombed from the air. Two men were killed and seven were wounded. In September 1915 Charles’ record in the Parish Roll of Honour indicated that he had moved from HMS “Attentive”, but he was listed serving with the Royal Navy as a Staff Surgeon. Later, in July 1916, it was identified that Charles was serving at the Royal Naval Hospital at Malta, and continued there through to the end of January 1917. He was then again listed as a Staff Surgeon with the Royal Navy through to the end of the War, however, it is not known where he served during this period.
Charles Baxter survived the War and served with the Royal Navy into the 1930s.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
