Frederick Charge

LEVERSTOCK GREEN WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918

FREDERICK CHARLES CHARGE 1895 to 1916

Arthur Charge was a Sheppard from Leverstock Green taking his trade from his own father, the family had been associated with Leverstock Green for a long time, a Lydia Charge was the first child christened in the village church after its compleation in 1849. Arthur was baptised here on 28th February 1862, living at the time at Balconey.

Arthur married Alice Dolt in 1887 and their son Harold was born during the spring of 1890. This union was unfortunately short lived as Alice died around ten months later. While living in Elephant Castle Hill cottages in St Albans Road, Arthur met Lavinia Smith who lived and cooked for an elderly couple in St Albans Road, originally from Great Gadsden and six years older than Arthur. Lavinia had given birth in 1883 to a son named William who lived with his grandmother in Abbots Langley.

Arthur and Lavinia married in the autumn of 1892 and made a home with the two boys at High Wood Hall farm in Pimlico were Arthur worked, more children followed. Daisy was next before Frederick then George. Frederick was born at Highwood Hall on the 6th November 1895 and baptised in the village church on 12th January 1896. As the years went by Fred would attend the village school in Leverstock Green. On leaving school Fred became a Stockman, probably at Highwood Hall Farm.

As a volunteer, Fred enlisted for the army during the second week of January 1915 and was posted to the Bedfordshire Regiment with the number 18854. After training he went over to France on 30th September 1915 as a replacement soldier for the 2nd battalion Bedfordshire regiment, one of four battalions of the 89th brigade, 30th division.

The Earl of Derby was mainly responsible for raising the 30th Division and he gave the family crest as the divisional sign. The division was originally made up of Liverpool and Manchester city or pals battalions. In November 1915 the division moved to France and on 20th December 1915 the 2nd battalion Bedfordshire regiment was transferred to 89th brigade. The division’s first major attack of the war was on July 1st 1916 the first day of the battle of the Somme and was one of only a few divisions to achieve any noted success.

During the Great War nearly 1400 soldiers would be killed serving in the 2nd Beds, of which 21 were residents in the Hemel Hempstead area, 5 of whom had connections with Leverstock Green.

The Battles of the Somme; the Battle of the Transloy Ridges, 1 -18 October 1916.

The fighting took place during worsening weather and dreadful battlefield conditions.  Fourth Army's objectives as a preliminary, the taking of the village of Eaucourt L'Abbaye and an advance on III Corps entire front was launched, after a seven-hour bombardment, at 3.15 p.m. on 1 October. The attack met fierce German resistance and it was not until the afternoon of 3 October that the objectives were secured. The army commander General Rawlinson’ follow up attack was delayed by atrocious weather. Starting at 1.45 p.m. on 7 October the advance involved six divisions and resulted in heavy British casualties and little success except for 23rd Division's capture of the village of Le Sars. Continuous rain during the night hampered the removal of casualties and further forward moves. The failure to secure original battle objectives led to a renewed major assault on the afternoon of 12 October when infantry on Fourth Army’s right floundered towards German trench lines in front of Le Transloy, while formations on the left slogged towards the Butte de Warlencourt. Despite the slightest of gains the operation was not successful.

The report below is from the Bedfordshire Regiment's war diary 

At about 11 a.m. on the morning of the attack a party of Germans (2 Officers and about 50 men) appeared in Gird Trench without arms they made signs of surrender, but hesitated to come over for fear of being shot, 2nd Lieut.H.G.Fyson however went out and spoke to the German Officer who got back into the trench, but just as he got in, someone fired a shot at him, after this they did not come over. 

The attack commenced at 2.5 p.m., but owing to our trenches not facing the objective "D" Company on the left had to make almost a right turn across the enemy's front which was 250 yards away. The attack was made in four waves. "C" & "D" Coys forming the first two waves, "B" Company formed 3rd wave "A" Company formed the 4th wave in support the distance between each wave was 100 yards. At 2.5 p.m. the first wave left its assembly trenches and all went well until it reached a small ridge about 60 yards in front when it came under terrific Machine Gun and Rifle Fire causing many casualties. They pushed on and got within 50 yards of Gird Trench but the fire was so great that they were held up owing to having so many casualties. Here they had to lie out until nightfall. "C" Company made better progress and passed over the Southern end of Gird Trench they also came under heavy machine Gun Fire from Gird Support Trench and got held up when "B" Company arrived and reinforcing them they pushed on again and captured about 200 yards of Bite Trench which was a shallow communication trench and much blown in, This portion of Bite Trench was converted by "B" & "C" Companies into a magnificent fire Trench and is very important owing to the observation that can be obtained from it. Half of "A" Company converted the Southern portion of Gird Trench and placed a block about 70 yards up. 

An attempt was made to dig a trench from here up to "D" Company under Captain L.F.Beal who with about 50 men were isolated but this had to be abandoned owing to the enemy's fire, several messages were sent but the runners were either killed or wounded. Eventually 2nd Lieutenant J.P.Pitts managed to get back to Headquarters with a message and he took back orders for Captain BEAL to withdraw to his original position after dark, this he successfully did by crawling and his party reached the British lines at about dawn. The total gains of the day were about 200 yards of Bite Trench and about 70 yards of Gird trench. The Battalion did magnificently and were the only Battalion to gain any ground on the whole of the Corps Front, 

Fred was killed in action on the 12th of October in the attack described above. The casualties for the battalion stood at 252, of these 77 were killed. These included not only Fred but also Fred Bandfield from Hemel Hempstead and 6 days later Bertie Charge from High Street Green died.

A soldier from 6th division was to write after his experiences of 12th October                                                                                                                “well if I live through this battle I think I shall have seen war at its worst, hell must have some bottom”   

Frederick was included on the service for the parish at Easter 1919 and was named on the village school memorial,                                                       the Leverstock Green memorial and Hemel town memorial.

Link to Frederick in CWGC site:

Frederick's original grave was located on the battlefield in 1919 by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, just in front of Gird trench, this position would place him as a soldier from "D" company. He was reburied during 1919 at Warlencourt British Cemetery. Plot 3. Row D Grave 11. He was 20 years old. 

The Warlencourt British cemetery was made late in 1919 when graves were brought in from small cemeteries and isolated graves from the battlefields of Warlencourt and Le Sars. The cemetery now contains 3,505 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,823 of the burials are unidentified.

The reasons for the failure of the 12 October attack were summarised by the Official History: "The enemy, doubtless warned by the bombardment and by now accustomed to afternoon attacks, had been found ready and alert on 12 October. The British battalions showed admirable powers of endurance but were woefully weak in numbers - (at this time few battalions in the Fourth Army could muster more than 400 men for an attack) - with many half-trained men in the ranks. Assistance from the air (so much relied on in counter-battery work in locating new German positions and in reporting the progress of an attack, had been severely limited by poor visibility). Moreover many German machine guns now appeared to be sited further back in well concealed positions from which they swept with deadly effect the zone of the assault." 'Military Operations. France and Belgium, 1916', Captain Wilfrid Miles, 1938 (pp.442-443).

The rain of late September was as of nothing compared to the downpours experienced during October which turned the battlefield into a barely negotiable morass. Increasingly cold weather added hugely to the discomforts of the troops. Movement became an exhausting and despairing business in a landscape swept clear of all reference points: 'The country was more than ever devoid of landmarks - it was just a wide expanse of shell-holes in a dark brown, almost black kind of earth - and no one knew either their own position or those of the enemy within a few hundred yards....The weather became steadily worse, and though water is supposed to run downhill and the division was on the slope of a hill, the troops might just as well have been in the middle of a pond.' ('The 56th Division', Major C H Dudley Ward, London: John Murray, 1921; pp.82-83).

Arthur died during 1923 and is buried in the village church graveyard

LEVERSTOCK GREEN WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918