Ashtead War Memorials - WWI - Pte Charles Edward
Carter
16th Bn Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
It is known that CE Carter’s parents were Charles (senior) [born ca 1858, Swavesey, Cambridge, registered as Charles Edwards in Chesterton 12/1858?], who was employed in 1881 as a (Stationary Agricultural?) Engine Driver, and Elizabeth Ann née Bond [born Hardwick, Cambridgeshire, registered Caxton 12/1864, baptised Hardwick 21 May 1865]. Their marriage has been found registered at St Ives, Cambridgeshire, 12/1888 as between Charles Edwards and Elizabeth Ann Bond.
In the 1891 Census, the Edwards family appears at Westwick/Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, comprising Charles described as a Steamplough Driver, Ann, his wife, and two children, Charles C and Frederick.
They arrived in Ashtead, by 1892, to be known as “Carters” renting a cottage on Park Lane from the Lord of the Manor, Pantia Ralli until at least 1896. Rate Rolls for 1900 reveal that they had moved to pay rent to Jane White in respect of 1 White’s Cottages, Crampshaw Lane. Confusingly, however, they are enumerated for 1901 at 1 Keals Cottages, Crampshaw Lane, when Charles, senior, had become a landscape gardener with 8 children, as Edwards: the household also included a Bond brother-in-law and a lodger.
Street Directories for 1910/1911-1918 have Charles , senior, listed with the surname Carter back in White’s Cottages, Crampshaw Lane. In the 1911 Census, Charles and Elizabeth Carter appear there, aged respectively 53 and 46, with their 6 youngest children still at home.
Charles Edward Carter himself had been born in Westwick, Cambridgeshire, [registered as Charles Edward C. Edwards at Chesterton 3/1889 ] and married Georgina Maud [possibly née Hierons, registered Kingston upon Thames 6/1910].
Before 1913, however, the married couple had established themselves in Kathleen Street, West Guildford, Perth, Western Australia, where Charles (junior) gained employment as a Shop Assistant/Salesman.
On 28 March 1917 he enlisted at Blackboy Hill Depot, Perth, for War Service and was assigned to 28th Battalion, 21st Reinforcements as Private 7044. His unit embarked from Albany, Western Australia, on HMAT A16 Port Melbourne, on 24 July 1917. After arriving in England on 17 September 1917, training took place at Rollestone and Fovant Camps (in 6th English Battalion) before troops were assigned to reinforce 16th Battalion AIF (when an “A” was added to his service number on account of duplication). Charles sailed to France from Southampton 23 January 1918.
On 8 August 1918, at the start of the Battle of Amiens, Charles sustained a gunshot wound to his thigh and abrasion of his face but, unfortunately, he was not admitted to 53rd Casualty Clearing Station until 11 August. He survived only until the following day before interment at Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, 2¾ miles west of Corbie, the service being conducted by Chaplain the Reverend FR Thurlow.
The preparations for the Somme offensive of July 1916 had brought a group of casualty clearing stations (the 1st/1st South Midland, 21st, 34th, 45th and Lucknow, section "B") to Daours. The extension to the communal cemetery was opened and the first burials made in Plots I, II, Row A of Plot III and the Indian plot, between June and November 1916. The Allied advance in the spring of 1917 took the hospitals with it, and no further burials were made in the cemetery until April 1918, when the Germans recovered the ground they had lost. From April to the middle of August 1918, the extension was almost a front line cemetery. In August and September 1918, the casualty clearing stations had come forward again (the 5th, 37th, 41st, 53rd, 55th and 61st) but in September, the cemetery was closed.
| After Charles’
death, his widow and Executrix, Georgina Maud Carter,
took up residence in Bassendean Homestead, Main Parade,
West Guildford, Western Australia and received from the
Army a few effects; 1 [identity] disc, letters, photos,1
pocket book & razor blades in case. Some records in Australia suggest she might have remained there up to 1925/6 but, in late 1922, her address had been stated as The Cottage, Dorchester Road, Weybridge, Surrey, England, when a receipt was given for a memorial scroll. Her address in the CWGC record is Heythrop, 46, Claremont Rd, Teddington, Middlesex, England. Charles Edward Carter was also awarded British War and Victory Medals. His name also appears on the West
Guildford (renamed Bassendean in 1922) War Memorial. http://www.siamnewmedia.com.au/galleries/bassendean_warmemorial/index.htm |
 Photo courtesy of Michael & Cynthia Brock, Perth, Australia |
Charles Edward Carter is listed only as C Carter on the Ashtead Memorials.
text: Brian Bouchard, Ann Williams and Frank Haslam
contributing and with thanks to Australian contacts.
If you can add to this page please contact the editor
page added 9 April 2009: updated 17 Apr 2009