| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Charles Albert Smales enlisted on 15 Dec 1914, joining the 3rd Reserve Northumberland Field Ambulance, raised in Hull, as Private No 1820. He arrived in Ypres, Belgium in Apr 1915. Charles described life at the frontline to readers of the “Beverley Guardian” on 29 May 1915; he noted the impact of German gas attacks which had recently begun on this part of the frontline and the danger of German artillery fire.
In the autumn of 1916 whilst serving on the Somme, Charles was awarded the Military Medal. Charles returned to the UK in Jan 1918 and was discharged from the army with a hernia, for which he was given a gratuity of £35. He was awarded the Silver Badge, the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
Charles was born in Hull the 18 Feb 1893, the son of Tom Smales, a former docker but later a shipyard labourer at Grovehill Shipyard, Beverley and Ann Ellen Mason (1866-1945) of Hull. Charles worked as a timekeeper at the shipyard after leaving school. The family lived on Swinemoor Lane and later on Grovehill Road. Charles was a Staff-Sergeant in the 1st Company of the Beverley Boys’ Brigade and was also in the St John’s Ambulance. Between 1908 and 1913 he served as a private in the Territorial Army, in the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment (TA).
Charles married Martha Cook of Bourne, Lincolnshire on 18 Sep 1920 in Beverley, they had two children Mary born 1922 and Jack born 1923. By 1939 the family home was 271 Grovehill Road, Mary worked in a grocer’s shop and Jack was a joiner’s apprentice. Charles was an engineer’s storekeeper. Charles died on 8 May 1980. His wartime role is today remembered on the Grovehill Street Shrine, Chantry Lane, Beverley.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |