Name
Charles Botcherby
1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/09/1917
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
3/9442
West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales' Own)
9th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 42 to 47 and 162
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Baldock memorials, Middlesbrough War Memorial, Yorks.
Pre War
Charles Harold Botcherby was born in Baldock in 1881, the son of John and Emma Botcherby (nee Whitworth), and was baptised in Baldock 10 November 1881.
On the 1891 Census Charles was listed at the home of his widowed grandmother Sarah Botcherby who was living in Croydon Road, Caterham, Surrey and the proprietor of a grocer's shop. His father's occupation was given as grocer's manager.
He married Mary Bowes in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire in 1905 and on the 1911 Census they were living at 11 Stanley Street, Middlesbrough with their two daughters Florence and Margaret and two boarders. Charles was then working as a railway labourer. They had another daughter Emily in 1914 and a son Charles born in February 1917.
His wife later lived at 398 Cannon Street, Middlesbrough.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Middlesbrough and served with the 9th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales' Own) in France from 7 October 1914.
Charles was killed in action on 25 September 1917, aged 35, during the Battle of Polygon Wood (part of the Passchendaele offensive). He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £14 10s and pay owing of £6 18s 5d. She also received a pension of £1 15s a week for herself and their four children.
N.B. His name on the Register of Soldiers' Effects and pension records is shown as Charles Stephenson, alias Botcherby. At present no explanation has been found for the extra surname other than the fact that his aunt Mary Botcherby had married John Stephenson.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, ww1-yorkshires.org.uk
