By John D Ellis
Private Charles Harold was born on St Vincent c.1888. A ship’s cook by occupation, he enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment at Liverpool on the 11th of November 1915 and was given the service number 3601. He was 5 feet 6 and 1/4” tall and had a cyst on his left buttock, as a result of which he was rated as a category “B” soldier and sent to a Labour Battalion, rather than being categorised “A” and serving in the infantry. His address on enlistment was 39 Everton Terrace, Liverpool. He identified as a member of the Church of England, and named his aunt, Mary Goodall of 39 Everton Terrace, Liverpool, as his next of kin.
He was posted to the 18th (Labour) Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment which had been formed in Oldham in early 1916 and he served with the unit in France from April 1916 to April 1917. Labour battalions were used to work in docks (loading and unloading ships), railways and transport hubs. Often this work was undertaken within range of enemy artillery fire or subject to air attack.
Charles Harold only had one disciplinary incident in his records: In February 1917, whilst in France, he was convicted of striking a comrade and sentenced to 14 days “Field Punishment No. 1”. There are no details of the incident in his records, (suggesting that it was not considered “serious”), but soldiers have never been “plaster saints” (Kipling), and the “rough men” who stood “…ready to do violence…” on behalf of the “people sleeping peaceably in their beds at night” (paraphrasing Orwell), have unfortunately had recourse to resort to violence, rightly or wrongly, to resolve “relationship issues” with their peers and others. Field Punishment Number One, (referred to as “F.P. No. 1” or just “No. 1”), was brutal and humiliating: The soldier was handcuffed (often in a “stress position”), to a fixed object, such as a gun wheel or a fence post, and exposed to the elements for up to two hours per day, three days out of every four, until the sentence was served. Charles Harold endured this for fourteen days!
In early 1917, an Army Order formed the “Labour Corps”, (centralising command and control over a variety of labour units), and the 18th Cheshires became the 57th Labour Company of the Labour Corps. Charles Harold remained in France until October 1917 when he was granted 14 days leave. His cyst and “B” category appear to have been forgotten when his leave ended, as he was transferred to the 8th Battalion, the York and Lancaster Regiment (his battalion number changed to No.35733). By 1917, the 8th, one of Kitchener’s original “Volunteer Army” battalions, were an experienced infantry unit, having seen service at the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. Charles Harold therefore experienced war as an infantryman, and despite debility and “ethnicity”, very much proved himself “fit to serve”: In November 1917, the 8th arrived in Italy, and saw hard fighting in the winter of 1917, the Asiago Plateau (1918), and the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (1918).
In late November 1918, with the war over, he was admitted to hospital several times with malaria and influenza (the infamous “Spanish Flu” which claimed the lives of many soldiers). But he survived and in February 1919 returned to Britain, and the following month he was discharged from the army. His address on discharge was 39 Everton Terrace, Liverpool. In August 1919 ‘race riots’ broke out in Liverpool and at least one sailor who had served his country, Charles Wootton, originally from Bermuda, was hounded to his death in a Liverpool dock. There is no record of whether Charles Harold was affected by the trouble, he may have returned to sea by the time the riots erupted.
Following the war, Charles Harold was awarded both the British War Medal 1914-1920 and the Victory Medal. He returned to sea, registering as a merchant seaman. His identity card (No.518138 and No.844177) stated that he was a ship’s cook, born in St Vincent in 1888. Both Charles, and his father were referred to as being “West Indian”, and Charles himself was described as a “coloured man”.
He was at sea in 1919 and 1920, and this service probably continued until the Second World War, when he was “presumed killed” on the 2nd of September 1940 whilst serving as a baker on SS Bodnant, (with the Casualty Branch (sic) being informed in February 1941). In both February and May 1940, the Bodnant sailed from Liverpool with convoys OG 019F and OG 031F, which suggests Charles Harold was resident in Liverpool.
The annotation “presumed killed” was likely to have been a clerical error, caused by the “fog of war” and arising from the fact that the Bodnant had sunk following a collision with SS Bedford as the separate convoys they were in, collided in thick fog in the Atlantic in December 1940. Both vessels sank, however, all the crew of the Bodnant were rescued, whilst those of the Bedford were all lost. It is therefore more likely that Charles Harold died in September 1940, of either natural causes or enemy action, whilst on the Bodnant, and was buried at sea. Initially a practical response to high levels of mortality, being buried at sea, whether literally in a shroud – a “water burial”, or having ashes scattered – an “ashes burial”, was and still is a spiritually important ceremony amongst seafarers.
He is remembered on Panel 17 of the Tower Hill Memorial in London.
Sources: Surname also rendered as Harolds. TNA WO 363. www.findmypast.co.uk Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1918-1941 (1918-1921). TNA BT 348 (Piece 2), 349 and 350. British Army Medal Index Cards, 1914-1920. TNA WO 372/9/27014. www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/cheshire-regiment/ wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=1097 www.warsailors.com/convoys/ogconvoys.html For the photograph of Everton Terrace see: www.liverpoolcitypolice.co.uk/memories/everton-terrace/