Charles Pitchers

A Skipper with Sailing Trawler Queen Bee (Lowestoft), Charles died on 4th of July 1916 at the age of 51. 

Charles was born at Carlton Colville in 1860, a son of Robert and Lydia Pitchers. He was baptised at Saint Peter’s Church, Carlton Colville, on 7 April 1861. In 1861 his family lived at Railway Gate House, Carlton Colville, and this was still their home in 1871. In 1891 they lived at Hall Cottage, Oulton. Later Charles’ father, and his son Charles Henry, lived at 2 Rock Dene, Moyes Road, Rock Estate, Oulton Broad Lowestoft.

In 1881 Charles was an ordinary seaman on the trawler Florence and Mary.  

On 13 October 1885, Charles married Ellen Agnes Horn at Saint Michael’s Church, Oulton. Charles was a fisherman and they both lived at Oulton. Ellen died in 1891. 

Charles was the Skipper of the sailing trawler Queen Bee, LT 114. At about 5.30 p.m. on 4 July 1916 the Queen Bee was fishing about 28 miles north. East. From Scarborough. As they were preparing to shoot their nets a German submarine, UB-23, approaching and fired a shell which struck the Queen Bee’s rigging with fragments hitting Charles and two other members of the crew. Five other shots were fired and the crew took to their small boat. 

The crew were taken on board the submarine while the Germans placed charges on the trawler, which they subsequently detonated. Charles, and the other men, received medical attention, and were then put back in their boat. The submarine towed the boat for over two hours before casting it adrift. Charles died about midnight and it was another 24 hours before the men were rescued by the Hartlepool drifter Smiling Morn (the Smiling Morn was itself sunk by a submarine in August 1916). 

Charles’ nephew, Benjamin Pitchers, served in the Royal Naval Reserve and died in 1918. 

Note: some sources give Charles' surname as Pitcher. When he married he used the surname Pitchers and his children used Pitchers as well.