NEWELL, Charles H.

Memorial Parish Church CHARLES H. NEWELL

Memorial Hospital NEWELL C.H. Corporal Charles Henry Newell. [Battalion] [Regiment] 

Born [c.1880. Cirencester]. 

Enlisted [location]. 

Died 1 September 1920. Aged 40. Died of Injuries. 

Cemetery Cirencester Cemetery Section 3

Husband of Sarah Elizabeth Newell. 

Late addition to Parish Church, and not recorded by CWGC. 

Died of injuries received in the Great War. 

Wilts & Glos Standard 23 January 1915 

CIRENCESTER SOLDIER “IN THE PINK” 

In the course of a letter to his wife, Mrs Newell, of 149 Cricklade Street, Cirencester, Private C. Newell, of the 1st Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, throws an interesting side-light on the methods employed in the British Army to keep the forces physically fit by means of alternating periods of work and rest. We take some extracts: 

“I am ‘in the pink’ at present. We are out for a week’s rest again after a week’s hard work in the trenches, with plenty of digging. We have been all right this time, for they did not fire at us so much as at the last place we were in … We are having bad weather out here. At night time it is always raining, and it always seems to wait till night time before it starts. It is worst when we have to do our ‘sentry go’ … I am looking forward to the time when I shall be back.” 

Source:  FB image, 1915 01 23 Ref 518. 

Wilts & Glos Standard 4 September 1915 

CIRENCESTER SOLDIER’S EXPERIENCE AT HOOGE 

Private C. Newell, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, writing to his wife at No. 146 Cricklade Street Cirencester, thus describes his experiences at Hooge: – 

“It was on a Thursday evening, 5th August, we relieved a battalion of Kitchener’s Army in the trenches to take up our position to make an attack on the Germans. As you know, our men had been driven out by burning liquid, and we had to take the trenches at any cost, so our division was picked out to do it. The boys, I can tell you, were all eager to get at grips with the Germans, and the attack was fixed for Sunday morning 8 August. Everybody was waiting for the time to come when our guns would open fire and the word ‘go’ be given. Well, we got the order, but it was cancelled for 24 hours, which was a disappointment, I can tell you, for all of us. On the Monday morning, about five minutes to three o’clock, it seemed as if the world was coming to an end. Every gun of the British spoke and every man was strained. But eager faces were waiting for the word to get over the top. At five past three it came and over we went, shells screaming over our heads, some bursting twenty yards in front of us, but we crept up till we got about thirty yards away from their lines, and then with one shout over to their trenches we went. Dead and dying were lying about. It seemed to me as if they must have lost three hundred in one crater, for it was full of them and the smell was awful. Anyhow we dug ourselves in and made the trenches safe for ourselves, but they kept shelling us all day and night. When it came down that we were getting relieved I think every man was pleased. Anyhow we set off to do it, we did it, and also showed them what England’s ‘contemptible Little Army’ can do. I will close now, hoping you will get the letter all right. I might say this – though there is no courage like the British, for when we took the trenches off the Germans we started smoking as we dug ourselves in and sang ‘Here we are, Here we are again,’ and they knew it, too. I might say I was proud of my regiment, proud of my comrades, and also proud of my dear old country.” 

Source: FB image 1915 09 04 Ref 328.