Charles Homer Bosworth was my great grandfather. He lived in Codford in Wiltshire. Born in 1888, he served in the First World War and gets a mention in the Codford Roll of Honour:
Charles Homer Bosworth served in the British Army during World War 1 and spent time in Russia as part of his service.
Until a couple of months ago, that was as much as my sister and I and our cousins knew about his first World War Service. Then we got in touch with our Dad’s cousin in the US and he was able to tell us some more details. Apparently, Charles’ time in Russia involved being captured by the Bolsheviks and held in a cattle train car. Thankfully, he and his colleagues managed to escape, otherwise I would not be here today.
Charles Homer Bosworth continued to serve this country, joining the RAF. By the time World War 2 broke out, he was 51 years old and could have retired. Just two weeks in, he was one of 519 people killed after HMS Courageous was torpedoed off the course of Ireland.
From the Codford Roll of Honour again:
The Royal Air Force Muster Roll for 1918 records a C. H. Bosworth, Rigger (Aero) with the New Rank from Air Mechanic 2 to Air Mechanic 3 from 1/2/1918.
Charles Homer Bosworth, while serving with R.A.F., was posted to Egypt for 3 years.
When World War 2 was declared, Homer Bosworth was serving on H.M.S. Courageous with the rank of Flight Sergeant, in charge of a Maintenance Crew and was about to retire after 20 years service. He was among the R.A.F. personnel seconded to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and was part of the ship’s compliment aboard H.M.S. Courageous.
Flight Sergeant (237295) Charles Homer Bosworth was serving aboard H.M.S. Courageous when she was torpedoed and sank on 17th September, 1939 by German U-Boat 29. He was one of around 518 crew members that did not survive & was aged 51 years.
I know that my Grandma felt the impact of losing her Dad at such a young age, at just 19. Her younger sister, my Aunt Doreen, was just 18. She also lost her fiance later on in the war.
So many families have stories like this to tell. Remembrance Sunday gives us a chance to reflect on those who lost their lives in conflict, and to remember those who have suffered life-changing physical and mental injury as a result of their service. It’s a day to think about the impact of every single loss to a family, to friends, to their communities.
We will remember them.
Please use the comments to tell the stories of people close to you who were killed in war.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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4 Comments
My family was fortunate: one grandfather spied for the British in Greece, and the other operated the telegraph service to India in Bandar Abbas, Persia. My partner, on the other hand, has had her life profoundly affected by what happened to her grandparents. One was invalided out of the army after serving in Mesopotamia: he suffered from unknown diseases picked up in the marshes around Kut and was in ill-health for the rest of his life leaving him unable to work most of the time. The other was from rural Oxfordshire, lied about his age, and at 15 was picking up the dead, wounded and body parts from the battlefields of France. He became a very hard man who had six children: he may have been respected, but he was not loved. The consequences of the Great War, I hope, stop with our generation.
Thank you for the memorial article and comment.
Indeed, we should look at the direct and indirect consequences of conflicts.
All the male members of my mother’s family except one were killed in WW1. My Uncle Stiv lasted less than a day at Mametz Wood. My eldest Aunt became a lifelong widow two years after her wedding’ when her husband died of late complications from his war wounds.
[For more on the loneliness and sexual deprivation of women as a result of WW1 please see “Singled Out” by V. Nicholson]
Another Aunt in her teens became a builder’s labourer to keep her father’s building business going.
We should also look in hard detail at the history of conflicts.
The Armistice was agreed at 05:00 on 11/11/1918. It came into effect at 11:00. Between those times the Allies attacked Mons which resulted in yet more death, dismemberment, injuries and PTSD.
Such automaton like orders were typical of the arrogant, callous, promotion/status seeking attitudes of so many of the leaders of all sides.
[https://www.globalresearch.ca/not-saving-private-ryan-the-murderous-finale-of-the-great-war-november-11-1918-one-hundred-years-ago/5659461]
“Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not do so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.” [Wilfred Owen]
Has much changed?
My own father was born just before the First War and told us of the shadow it cast over the nation during the twenties and thirties. He said people didn’t greet each other with talk of the weather. The common question was “Who did you lose?”.
I fear for the world again. Economic meltdown is now guaranteed because all the ideas to revive Western economies are simple minded, ineffective and desperate.
Worse still, there is rising anger and distrust everywhere and intemperate language in our own supposedly civilised political arena. We need a MLK or a Mandela.
Remembering Great Uncle Herbert (1888-1972), Durham Light Infantry, for whom the War didn’t end at 11.00 am on 11 November, 1918 – but in 1972. Wounded in the head by shrapnel in September, 1916 at the Somme. Hospitalised then institutionalised for the next fifty four years. R.I.P. now Uncle Bert.