The details given in this article are derived from a report I submitted to a private client in April 2025.
Charles Horatio Foote was killed in action in 1918, but a study of his life revealed a complex picture of his military experience.
First period: Militia, November 1904 – January 1905
Charles joined the Militia of the Kent Royal Garrison Artillery when he enlisted in Stratford in East London on 21 November 1904.
At his attestation, he said that he had been born in Hackney and still lived there at 26 Warburton Road. Charles was aged 17 years and 11 months, unmarried, had the occupation of carman for a Mr. Wing of 83 Well Street, and had no previous military experience.
Some of the details recorded at his medical examination have also survived. Charles had apparently tried to enlist before but had been rejected as being below the standard required. They show that he now stood 5 feet 5.5 inches in height, weighed 114 pounds, and had an expanded chest of 33 inches. These measurements made him of average height but below average weight and chest by the standards of the day, but at his age it would be expected that he would continue to develop. It was also noted that he had a fresh complexion, brown eyes and hair. Some vaccination marks and a large scar on his left hip were noted as distinguishing features.
Charles was accepted for service with the militia and was made Gunner 7447. This form of service had come into existence in the mid 1700s when there was a perceived threat of invasion by France. The recruit would agree to serve for six years. He would start with seven weeks of full-time training at the base, and then receive additional training at an annual camp.
The Kent RGA (Militia) was based in Dover.
The service record shows that Charles completed preliminary training, which was normally carried out at Fort Burgoyne, and was then discharged as he had decided to enlist into the regular army. This was not an uncommon practice.
Second period: Regular Army, January – March 1905
Charles re-enlisted in Stratford on 16 January 1905, and chose to join the South Lancashire Regiment. He agreed to the standard engagement of twelve years, which was to me made up of nine years full-time service and then three years on reserve. Had he completed this engagement, he would have been recalled from reserve at the outset of the Great War in August 1914. Charles became Private 7926.
The details recorded at his attestation and medical examination are unsurprisingly similar to those of just a few weeks before. He had gained five pounds in weight, and a scar was this time noted as being in his forehead. Whether that was omitted or not noticed originally, or the result of something during his militia training, is unknown.
On 20 January 1905, Charles arrived at his regiment’s depot at Warrington, where he began training.
His service proved to be very short, for on 25 March 1905 he was discharged. All details are lost, but given the information that comes from the next time he served, it would appear that he was discharged on the grounds of being unlikely to develop into an efficient soldier, on medical grounds.
It would be another ten years before he wore uniform again.
Third period: Territorial Force, 22 May 1915 – 10 April 1916
The records of this period of Charles’s service have been reduced to little more than the medical facts, but they are nonetheless instructive
On 22 May 1915, and by implication voluntarily, he enlisted into the 7th (City of London) Battalion of the London Regiment at its headquarters at 24 Sun Street in Finsbury. He became its Private 4648.
The terms of his engagement are not known but are likely to have been for four years, which was the main standard for service with a unit of the Territorial Force, although men were in effect being engaged for the duration of the war at this time. Charles would have been immediately embodied (meaning that he went into full time service). He would have been encouraged to sign a second agreement known as the Imperial Service Obligation, in which he gave the army permission to transfer him to another unit or to send him overseas if required. This was not compulsory at enlistment but since the start of the war it had been expected.
Charles did not go overseas. This may have been because he had not signed the Obligation or, given what happened next, because he was not rated as physically fit to do so.
He was initially posted to join the associated 3/7th (City of London) Battalion (a training unit which in May 1915 was stationed at Tadworth in Surrey) but was moved on to 100th Provisional Battalion located at Aldeburgh in Suffolk. This was a unit manned by troops of the London Regiment but not technically of it. They were all rated as unfit for overseas service, and carried out a local defence and training role in Suffolk.
On 1 March 1916, a Medical Board considered Charles’s situation and for the first time in his records some facts emerged concerning his physical condition. This may have played a part in his discharge from his intended service in the regular army. It was noted that he had a bad stammer, that he had to fall out when on a march, had a generally poor physique and had “never trained.” A decision was taken to arrange his discharge from service.
Charles was discharged on 10 April 1916 under King;s Regulations 392xvi. This was always the result of a Medical Board assessing the man’s condition and deciding that he was no longer fit for duty.
Such a discharge invariably led to the award of a disablement pension or in some cases, a one-off gratuity. Despite the fact that none of his condition was said to be caused or aggravated by his military service, Charles was granted a gratuity of £25.
Discharge under KR392xvi was also usually accompanied by the issue of a Silver War Badge. The badges were individually numbered, and Charles was issued with badge 116519. The issuing roll was completed on 6 January 1917, so it may be that he had a short wait after being discharged before his badge arrived.
Fourth and final period of service: 27 July 1917 to 16 June 1918
In early 1916, Parliament passed the Military Service Act, the cornerstone to the introduction of conscription. This began for unmarried men on 2 March 1916 and was extended to married men on 25 May 1916. Certain classes of men were exempt but this did not include former soldiers who had been discharged on medical grounds. Thus on 25 May 1916, Charles Horation Foote was deemed by the law to have enlisted, and was placed into Section B Army Reserve to await call up.
Without a service record, there is less certainty about this phase of Charles’s military story. To reconstruct it, it is necessary to build upon a few clues:
- The financial effects register shows that his widow was sent a war gratuity payment of £3. This is a standard figure based on the man’s rank and length of mobilised service. The £3 payment was for soldiers who had been mobilised for less than a year when they lost their lives.
- “Soldiers Died in the Great War” says that Charles had served with the Rifle Brigade with the number 211468.
- The campaign medal roll gives details of his regiments, units and numbers once he was overseas. In sequence, they were S/35236 with the 17th Reserve and then 1/17th London Regiment, and then 29405 with the 1/23rd London Regiment.
- The register of the Pozières Memorial says that Charles was of the East Surrey Regiment and attached to the 1/23rd London Regiment when he died.
To make sense of this, it is necessary to examine what happened to men numbered around him at each stage, mainly by drawing upon surviving service records. This proved to be an effective approach and developed his story well, although it is necessarily based on assumption that the men’s stories were similar.
The Rifle Brigade number 211468 proved to be vital. 211438 was John Thomas Gutberlet, who was later renumbered as S/35235 (the latter being next to Charles’s S/35236). Their stories are likely to be identical from the time the first number was issued. Gutberlet was also from East London
The records suggest that this man and Charles Horatio Foote were mobilised on 27 July 1917. They had no choice over their allotment to the Rifle Brigade. Both were posted to a Territorial Force unit of the regiment, known as the 25th (Reserve) Garrison Battalion, which was based at Falmouth in Cornwall. This unit was manned by troops of low medical grade, and Gutberlet had been classified as such by Number 2 Medical Board at Whitehall in London when he was called up.
On 6 October 1917, both men (and no doubt others) were transferred to the regular army, still with the Rifle Brigade. This required them to be renumbered, and it was on that date that Charles became Private S/35236. They were posted to the 17th Reserve Battalion of the London Regiment. This move suggests that a change had occurred with respect to the acceptability of these men from a physical point of view, either due to a change of regulations or that they had developed while at Falmouth and were now re-graded.
The 17th Reserve was associated with the 17th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), a unit which had an affiliation to the Rifle Brigade. It was a training unit, located at Redhill in Surrey. In December 1917 it relocated to Wimbledon. The affiliation of the two regiments meant that it was not necessary for Charles to be renumbered when he was transferred. The same is true of his rank. Legally he was a Private, but both the Rifle Brigade and the 17th Londons were permitted to call their men by the style of Rifleman.
On 16 January 1918, Gutberlet was part of a reinforcement draft that went to France to join the 1/17th Battalion. It is conceivable that Charles was also with this draft, but before that conclusion can be drawn it is necessary to examine what happened next.
In April 1918, some men who had been with the battalions of the London Regiment were transferred to the East Surrey Regiment and renumbered. This was when Charles Horatio Foote became Private 29404. They were posted on paper to its 8th (Service) Battalion, but sent for attachment to the 1/23rd (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment. This battalion had an affiliation to the East Surrey Regiment. The dates shown in men’s records are not wholly consistent or logical, with near-numbered examples going on 3 April and 20 April.
This leaves some uncertainty about what exactly happened to Charles; whether he went with Gutberlet’s draft and did have some time with the 1/17th Battalion in the field; or went with a later draft and his posting to the 1/17th was little more than on paper before he was sent elsewhere.
It would be reasonable to assume that Charles arrived to join the 1/23rd Battalion some time during April 1918, although the battalion’s war diary appears quite good at mentioning the arrival of drafts and notes some drafts from the 1/17th Battalion during May. This is not necessarily inconsistent, for drafts were often held for a while at a holding position known as a Divisional Wing. All records point to Charles being killed in action on 16 June 1918.
Killed in action 16 June 1918
The battalion was under command of the 142nd Infantry Brigade of the 47th (London) Division. It had seen heavy fighting in early April 1918 and was still in the process of being rebuilt when these drafts arrived. During May and June, some casualties were sustained from enemy shellfire during one turn in the trenches, and by shells and aircraft bombs when engaged in constructing a rear line of defences near Baisieux.
At midnight on 9 June 1918, the 1/23rd Battalion relieved another unit in the front line. It remained in position until 19 June, sustaining small numbers of casualties each day. The war diary is not terribly informative, either in how the casualties were caused or even exactly where the battalion was at the time. The diary of the General Staff at divisional headquarters merely reported a “normal day.”
Details of location are provided by the war diary of the unit that left this position on 9 June. On that day, the 142nd Infantry Brigade took over from the 141st Infantry Brigade, and as part of that the 1/23rd Battalion relieved the 1/9th Londons. The brigade was taking over what division called its “Left Sub-Sector,” and said that it held the front line straddling the Albert-Amiens road, southwest of Albert. The headquarters of 1/23rd Battalion was set up at grid map reference 62D.D.12.d.6.6. This is illustrated in detail below, but it can be stated simply as being alongside the road. The trenches in square E.13, mentioned in the intelligence summary as being hit by German shellfire in the evening, were close by and it may be that it was in that vicinity that Charles lost his life.
Two others of the battalion died on 16 June 1918. One, like Charles, has no known grave today. He was Pte 718365 Frank Wiggs. The other man, Pte 718326 David Blackburn, lies in Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension. His remains were found during post-war clearance of these battlefields and he was brought to that cemetery for permanent burial. It is a matter of speculation as to whether Charles Foote and Frank Wiggs were also found but could not be identified. There are 165 men buried there who could only be marked as unknown soldiers.
Charles’s wife Frances, as his next of kin, would have been informed of his death within a few days of it having taken place. It became general public knowledge with the publication of the War Office list on 23 August 1918.
At some point,assuming that they were located, Frances would also receive any small private effects which had been recovered from Charle’s uniform and pack. This would typically include things like photographs, cards, diaries, money, pens or pencils, combs, religious items, and so on. It could take some months for these things to arrive.
Once the death had been formally announced the normal legal processes would then take place at home, principally to settle Charles’s financial affairs. On 11 October 1918, Frances was sent £11-8-11, a balance which would largely be unissued army pay.
From 20 January 1919, Frances began to receive a dependants pension amounting to £1-13-9 per week . This was for her children and would be paid until they reached the age of 16. This replaced a wife and dependants’ separation allowance that she would have been paid since Charles’s mobilisation.
Commemoration
Whatever was communicated to Frances concerning Charles’s place of burial (if he ever had one) remains unknown. That he is commemorated at the Pozières Memorial only confirms that his remains were never identified. That she was aware of this commemoration is certain. She was sent a “Final Verification Form”. If it was not returned the man’s age, next of kin and other personal details would not appear in the printed cemetery or memorial register. The authorities were aware that men’s names, ages, and other details given at attestation or application for commission were not always accurate or the truth, and the forms were sent in an effort to ensure that the permanent commemoration was correct. That Charles’s details do appear in the register confirms that the form was returned.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission says that this memorial, “relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918. The Corps and Regiments most largely represented are The Rifle Brigade with over 600 names, The Durham Light Infantry with approximately 600 names, the Machine Gun Corps with over 500, the Manchester Regiment with approximately 500 and the Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery with over 400 names. The memorial encloses Pozières British Cemetery. The remaining plots [of the cemetery] were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the cemetery, the majority of them of soldiers who died in the Autumn of 1916 during the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme, but a few represent the fighting in August 1918. The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.”
The maps below were produced using Linesman from Great War Digital.
Perhaps Charles Horatio Foote is still within the area shown, waiting to be discovered one day.