Charles Edward Beadsworth

Name	Charles William (Edward) Beadsworth
Corps	Durham Light Infantry 1/5th Battalion, formerly Northamptonshire Regiment 3681
Rank	Private
Service No.	200927
Date/Place of entry
Date of death	25 March 1918 Killed in Action
Memorial/Grave	Pozieres Memorial, Panel 68 to 72.

Charles was born in 1893, the second of eight children of Charles Thomas and Ada Beadsworth of Kettering. His military record and his marriage certificate give Edward as his middle name, but birth and census entries record it as William.

Charles Thomas was born in 1867 and was a grandson of Antony Beesworth of Cottingham. He therefore had many Cottingham Beadsworth cousins. His father died when he was two years old and when his mother remarried he went to live in Stanion with her and his stepfather William Kilbourn. By 1891 he had moved to Kettering with his Walsall-born wife and was living in Albert Street with her and their baby daughter. Charles Thomas was listed as a tin worker / brazier in 1891 and 1901, when he was still living in Albert Street with more children and three boarders; one of these was John William Liquorish, a member of the Cottingham family who were and are active members of Cottingham Methodist Church.

By 1911 Charles Thomas was describing himself as an ironmonger and the family had moved to Regent Street. His son Charles was living at home and employed, presumably by his father, as an assistant ironmonger. Four years later Charles junior married Grace Mary Clipson and they had two children; Constance Winifred born November 1915 and Charles Leonard born April 1917.

His military service record does not survive but his entry on the Commonwealth War Graves site says he was originally a private in the Northamptonshire regiment. At the time of his death he was serving with the 1/5th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. It was a territorial battalion that had been part of the 150th Brigade in the 50th (Northumbrian) Division from spring 1915 but transferred to the 151st (still in the 50th Division) in February 1918. George Timson of Ashley had also been transferred from the Northamptonshire Regiment into this battalion in August 1916, a few months before his death.

Charles was reported killed in action on 25 Mar 1918. That same week also saw the deaths of Cottingham and Wilbarston soldiers Francis William Muggleton, Harry Fisher, John Wildenand Roland Ingram. The 50th division belonged to the Fifth Army and fought in the Battle of St Quentin on 21-23 March. It was not involved in the following two days of fighting at Bapaume and resumed fighting only at the Battle of Rosières on the 26th. The Fifth Army was gradually being driven back across the Somme battlefields by superior enemy numbers, and as Charles’ body was never recovered it seems most likely he died fighting at St Quentin and was presumed dead two days later.
He is commemorated on Pozieres Memorial, close to Albert. Many of the UK causalities remembered here were killed in March and April 1918, of whom around six hundred belonged to the DLI.

Charles’ widow Grace married George Randall late in 1919 and went to live in Burton Latimer. His father Charles Thomas died in 1946 and his mother Ada in 1948. His second cousin Harry Beadsworth died in July 1916. Charles was also related to deceased soldiers, William Joseph, Arthur and Alick (Alec) Slater Beadsworth.