Charles William Roe

A Sergeant with the 1st Battalion, Charles died on 22nd of October 1918 aged 23. 

Charles was born at Gillingham, near Beccles, in 1895, a son of Herbert James and Emma Charlotte Roe. He was baptised at Saint Peter’s Church, Carlton Colville, on 16 August 1896, and his family lived at Carlton Colville. By 1901 his family were living at Gate House, Marsh Lane, Carlton Colville. This was still their address in 1911 when Charles worked as a labourer on a farm. Later his parents lived at 118 Old Palace Road, Norwich. 

In 1912 Charles began work for the Great Eastern Railway Company as a porter based at Wroxham.

Charles volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Norwich in 1914: it is thought that he had enlisted in the Regular Army before the war began. Initially he served with the 4th Hussars, service number 19565. He was transferred to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and arrived in Gallipoli on 4 September 1915 to join the 6th Battalion. It seems that he was wounded at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli.

At some point Charles was posted to the 1st Battalion and it appears that he arrived in France in March 1916. On 1 July 1916 the 1st Battalion attacked Y Ravine, near Beaumont Hamel, on the Somme. At the start of that day the 1st Battalion numbers 36 officers and 916 other ranks. During the day their casualties were:
Officers: six killed, eleven wounded, four missing
Other ranks: 50 killed, 265 wounded, 225 missing

By March 1918 Charles was a Sergeant with C Company. On 21 March 1918 the 1st Battalion received orders to man the ‘Battle Zone’ near Hamel, with lines facing the village of Fontaine, in preparation for the expected German attack. The enemy attacked on 22 March causing many casualties. The Battalion received orders to hold their positions and in the ensuing fight groups of men form the Battalion were surrounded and killed or captured. The Battalion’s casualties for 22 March 1918 were:
Officers: five killed, one wounded, 15 missing
Other ranks: 531 missing

On 23 March the 46 men who had survived the attack joined the Battalion details, which included the transport section, stores, etc., making 100 men, with no officers, under the command of Quartermaster Sergeant Keaney. Charles was one of these men. The unit came under command of an officer of the 9th Battalion and were organised in a defensive flank before moving to Flavy and then going on to reinforce the 9th Battalion. On their way to reinforce the 9th Battalion the advance guard, which according to the Great Eastern Railway Magazine, was being led by Charles, came under sustained rifle and machine-gun fire which caused several casualties and the force had to withdraw to the Flavy-Le Plessis crossroads. For his bravery during this incident Charles was awarded the Military Medal. He would have been presented with the ribbon for his award in May/June 1918 some weeks before the details were published in the London Gazette (See London Gazette 26 August 1918, page 10133 and Great Eastern Railway Magazine October 1919, page 209, which gives the account of the deed for which Charles won the Military Medal).

The 1st Battalion War Diary for 14 April 1918 has:

At 2.15 a.m. an enemy patrol of six men approached our post at Nobles Farm. The garrison of the post fired on them and cries were heard. It was discovered at daylight that five were killed and it is believed that another was wounded. The N.C.O. in charge of the post Sergeant Roe and Lance Corporal Robertson showed great initiative and by quickly grasping the situation, inflicted casualties on the enemy and obtained a valuable identification.  

On 14 October 1918, Charles was in Second Lieutenant Irvine’s platoon. The Battalion launched an attack on pill boxes at Dadizeelehoek and Marcouitch, near Ledeghem. The enemy barrage was particularly intense, and Second Lieutenant Irvine killed, and Charles then took command. The attack proved to be successful, and the Battalion captured 50 machine-guns, one trench mortar and around 200 men. The Battalion’s casualties from 14 to 16 October were one officer killed, one officer wounded, 25 other ranks killed, and 118 wounded.  

On 20-21 October 1918 the 1st Battalion made an attack in the vicinity of Straate. The Battalion War Diary has:

During this most difficult operation the Battalion advanced a distance of 2,000 yards . . . capturing four villages and about 60 prisoners and a number of machine guns, The operation was rendered more difficult by the fact that a very large track of country had to be covered in the dark by a comparatively small force, and by the shortage of officers. . . Casualties inflicted on the enemy were considerably heavier than our own and they left a lot of dead on the captured ground.

During this attack the 1st Battalion’s casualties were:
Officers: three wounded
Other ranks: 17 killed, 42 wounded, 14 missing

Charles was wounded during the attack, with a gunshot wound to his right thigh and a compound fracture. He was taken to 110 Field Ambulance where he died from his wounds on 22 October.  

For his gallantry in October 1918 Charles was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. This was noted in the 1st Battalion War Diary of 19 November 1918. The award was published in the London Gazette, 2 December 1919, page 14875, with the following citation: 

When his platoon officer became a casualty in the early stages of an attack near Ledeghem, on the 14th October 1918, he assumed command and led his men gallantly forward through the hostile barrage under heavy machine-gun fire to their objective, capturing prisoners and several machine-guns. On the night 20th/21st October, during as attack on Straate, his company commander and remaining platoon officer both became casualties. He assumed command of his company and completed the capture of the village. He consolidated under heavy fire and beat off a counter-attack before dawn. He did fine work. 

The baptism register at Saint Peter’s Church, Carlton Colville, includes the following marginal notes next to the entry for Charles’ baptism: 

Charlie joined the Regular Army at the commencement of the War and had he lived would have received a commission. He had won the Military medal for bravery. He lost his life on the Western Front having previously been wounded at Suvla Bay. He was a regular communicant. 

The Great War: ‘Died for England’ October 24th 1918 Acting Company Sergeant Major 4th Hussars attached to 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

We note that some of the details in the marginal notes are note entirely accurate, they do give a flavour of what the community understood about Charles and must, in part at least, have been based on communications received by his family. 

Charles' brother, Herbert, died in 1917 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment. 

With thanks to Gil Bossuyt for identifying the company Charles served with in 1918.