Charles Cartwright

Charles Cartwright’s connection with Dore was through his wife, Louise, the daughter of Charles Haywood Hoyland, the director of a brush manufacturing company, and his wife Louisa Maria. In 1911, the Hoylands were living on Bushey Wood Road, and in 1915 at Thornfield, on Totley Brook Road.

Charles Cartwright was born in 1882 in Callington, Cornwall, one of the 14 children of George Dawson Cartwright, the curate of Callington, and his wife Maria. Charles was educated at St Chad’s College, Denstone (now Denstone College), an Anglican boarding school, where he was in the Cadet Corps. He then studied at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. At the time of the 1911 census, he was visiting a friend in Kent; he gave his occupation as schoolmaster. According to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 29th April 1916, he taught at King Edward VII School, Sheffield for a short period around 1912. He then went to South Africa, and acted as a special constable during the Johannesburg strikes. He returned to England in 1913, and took up a post at St George’s School, Windsor, later becoming second master at Sutton School, Surrey, from which he joined the army.

Charles joined the Bedfordshire Regiment shortly after the outbreak of war. The Regiment’s website states that he enlisted on 27th August 1914, as Private 12370 in the Regiment’s 6th battalion. He was described as being 5 feet 9¼ inches tall, of dark complexion, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 2nd September, and to Corporal ten days later. On 1st November, he was promoted to Sergeant, and on 28th January 1915 he became a Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 9th (Reserve) battalion. He was later attached to the 8th battalion, with which he served on the Western Front from 1st January 1916.

Charles and Louise were married at Dore Church on 3rd March 1915: he was 32 and she was 20. The Sheffield Independent for 4th March 1915 reported that they were married ‘very quietly and with only the nearest relatives and a few personal friends to witness the ceremony’. Although the bride wore an elegant white dress, both the bridegroom and the best man, Louise’s brother Wynne Hoyland, were in khaki. There were no bridesmaids. Louise’s brother Stanley, aged about nine, took ‘the loosely-tied bunch of lilies and pink-tipped tulips which the bride carried in lieu of the more conventional bouquet’; he was described as ‘a flaxen-haired mite in a pale green jersey suit’.

Charles and Louise had only a brief honeymoon in Harrogate - presumably Charles did not have much free time before he had to return to his regiment in France. After their honeymoon, Louise went back to live in her parents’ home, Thornfield, on Totley Brook Road.

Charles was killed in action on 19th April 1916. He was initially buried north of La Brique, 1½ miles north of Ypres, but his grave was later lost, and he is therefore commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial. He was eligible for the Victory and British War Medals. In addition to the Dore War Memorial, his name appears on the war memorial in Gamlingay, South Cambridgeshire, where his older brother, Cuthbert, was the vicar.

Charles and Louise had no children.