Mexborough and Swinton Times December 1, 1917

Private William Henry Charlesworth      
Notts and Derby

From J Michael Langley:

“On the Website I discovered there was reference to a distant relative of mine, or to be more precise my late mother’s uncle who was killed in action in WW1.

His name was William Henry Charlesworth. His photo appears on the Mexborough website apparently taken from the Mexborough and Swinton Times of December 1917. They reported his death at that time.

Some years ago I did some family research into my mother’s history and I have more information concerning her uncle which I thought maybe of some interest:

William was born in Mexborough and enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment) at Denaby.

He was posted to the 16th Battalion and his Army record shows his Theatre of War was in France and Flanders.

Mum occasionally spoke of him and had a photo of him and his wife, (or to be more precise we believe it to be such). Infact, I checked the marriage records and discovered that a William H Charlesworth married a lady called Annie Boothman during the summer of 1917, although I never followed this up with obtaining a copy of their marriage certificate. However, this will accord with the information my mother had  regarding the fact that he came home on leave to get married and then returned to war.

He was killed in action on the 19 October 1917 whilst involved in the third Battle of Ypres in Belgium, known as Passchendaele. His body was never recovered, like thousands of others. But his name appears on the wall at the Tyne Cot Memorial cemetery in Ypres and, incidentally, on the war memorial in Mexborough.”