Charles Edgar Minton was born on the 26th of March 1883, the third son to parents William and Sarah Elizabeth Minton (nee Doolittle). Charles was born in Swan Street, a bustling thoroughfare full of shops and pubs in Kidderminster’s town centre. His elder brothers were Bertram and William.

Charles’s father William was a clothier and gentlemen’s outfitter whose business had been successfully trading in Kidderminster for some time. He was one of many Minton clothiers with several generations before him having plied the same trade. Indeed William's father (Charles’s grandfather) was still managing a clothiers’ outlet in nearby Bewdley.

The 1891 Census confirms that 8-year-old schoolboy Charles, had now been joined by a sister named Elsie who was born in 1887, and a third brother named Clement James. who was born in 1890.

By 1901 the family had left Kidderminster and moved the three miles to Bewdley, living at numbers 51 and 52 in Load Street (the home of grandad Minton’s clothing & drapery business – and the base for preceding generations of Minton clothiers too. The family had been living in, and operating from, these premises and adjacent properties for a good-many years). 

Charles however, was living away at the time of the 1901 census; he was boarding at a lodging house on the Bristol Road in Birmingham, where he was learning his trade as an apprentice draper. At one stage he’d also lived and worked as a draper and clothier in St Pancras, London too - he was desperate to gather sufficient knowledge and experience to take over the running of the family business when his time came.

Unfortunately however, Kaiser Willhelm II had different plans…

When war broke out, Charles (who was now living back in Kidderminster) signed-up with a Birmingham City battalion. The reason why Charles chose a Birmingham battalion rather than his local Worcestershire Regiment 7th battalion is unknown.

However, several young Bewdley men that Charles would have been friendly with had also chosen to sign-up with Birmingham City battalions (Joseph Smith and Herbert Coldrick to name just two) - perhaps Charles was keen to serve with them? Or maybe perhaps, it was a throwback to the time Charles had spent living on the Bristol Road in Birmingham and the influence of friends he’d made there whilst learning his trade?

Whether either scenario is true or not, Charles’s actions weren’t particularly unusual.

In fact, at this time the recruitment of groups of young men from the same towns, sports clubs, factories and church congregations was encouraged; the thinking being that the recruits would settle into army life more quickly and fight more enthusiastically if they were surrounded by friends and relatives.

These new, localised units even had their own name – they were called Pals battalions.

At the start of the war, Pals battalions were springing up all over the country, in large cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.

But Pals battalions weren’t confined just to large cities. The ‘Grimsby Chums’ was formed by former schoolboys of Wintringham Secondary School in Grimsby. Many other schools, including some of the leading public schools, also formed Pals battalions. Several sportsmen's battalions were also formed, including three battalions of footballers (two battalions of the Middlesex Regiment and one of the Royal Scots Regiment – the latter of which contained the entire Heart of Midlothian F.C. first and reserve teams, several boardroom and staff members, plus a sizable contingent of supporters).

Out of nearly 1,000 battalions raised during the first two years of the war, 145 Service and seventy Reserve infantry units were locally raised Pals battalions.

In Birmingham the forming of a Pals battalion had been inspired by the then deputy mayor, Alderman William H. Bowater, who’d responded to Lord Kitchener’s appeal by proposing raising and equipping a battalion of “young businessmen” to fight the Kaiser.

In one September week alone the Alderman’s appeal attracted some 4,500 names; friends, relatives and office colleagues, all registered on a list that was promoted by the Birmingham (Daily) Post.

This exceeded expectations by some way and enabled the City to actually raise three battalions:- the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd. These units became known as the Birmingham Pals (or locally as the Brummagem Pals). Each of these battalions raised a reserve Company for support throughout their training periods.

During training, they became formally entitled as:

 ~ the 14th (Service) Battalion (1st Birmingham) Royal Warwickshire Regiment 

~ the 15th (Service) Battalion (2nd Birmingham) Royal Warwickshire Regiment and 

~ the 16th (Service) Battalion (3rd Birmingham) Royal Warwickshire Regiment

At this stage of the war, it was common practice for soldiers to be transferred from company to company, battalion to battalion and even regiment to regiment, as required to make up shortfalls elsewhere.

The 1st and 2nd Birmingham Pals in particular suffered in this respect, with large numbers of their NCO’s being transferred to other regiments, where they were offered commissions to replace lost officers. (More than 500 of the original volunteers to the Birmingham City Battalions were transferred and commissioned elsewhere during their training period, confirming not only the need for officer replacements across the British Army in general, but also the high calibre of the Birmingham City Battalion volunteers.)

Somewhat begrudgingly (although perhaps, inevitably due to the pressure for ever greater numbers of new recruits) certain enrollment-requirements were later relaxed to ensure that the reserve companies were kept up to strength and eventually, these reserve companies were amalgamated to form the 17th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

From the low configuration of Charles’s service number (66), it's apparent that he was among one of the first tranche of recruits taken into the 16th (Service) Battalion (3rd Birmingham) Royal Warwickshire Regiment, in or around, September 1914.

Charles subsequently served in the 2nd platoon of ‘A’ company and records show that in 1915, he'd been quick to achieve promotion to the rank of Lance Corporal - most probably during training on Malvern Common.

On the 26th of June 1915, having completed their training, Charles’s battalion was attached to the 95th Brigade 32nd Division. Events were now proceeding at a pace…

Having completed what was considered to be thoroughly appropriate training back in Blighty, the Birmingham battalions departed for France – landing at Boulogne on the 21st of November 1915. The training that had been deemed so appropriate whilst on the school fields in Moseley and on the Common at Malvern however, could never have fully prepared the Pals for what lay ahead.

On the 30th of December, Charles’s 16th Battalion was on duty and stationed in trenches which faced the Town of Carnoy. The following day (New Year’s Day, January the 1st 1916) the battalion suffered its first fatality, Sergeant Frank William Grove, a 23-year-old Tamworth lad. 

Three months later, Charles’s ‘A’ Company of the 16th (3rd Birmingham) Pals, took-over a section of the front-line between St. Laurent Blagny and the southern edge of Vimy Ridge, near Arras. Whilst relatively quiet in this section of the line, further casualties were unfortunately still being suffered, but far worse was to come… 

In July 1916, Charles’s battalion was directed south, to the Somme, where they were involved in some of the war’s most horrendous fighting.

Between the 20th and the 25th of July 1916, Charles’s fought in High Wood, the last of the dark and menacing woods to be captured by the British in the Somme offensive of 1916. The fighting in Mametz Wood had been awful, and Delville Wood was hell on earth, but they eventually fell, as did Trones Wood.

High Wood, however, was the worst of them all; the Germans simply didn’t want to give the Wood up, the fighting was bloody, nerve-shredding and continuous. The battleground was only partially cleared after the war, and so horrendous was the fighting in High Wood that the remains of around 8,000 British and German soldiers are believed to still lie there to this day.

What Charles went through and the horrors that he must have witnessed at High Wood defy description, and can only be imagined.

On the evening of the 31st of August 1916, Charles’s 15th Brigade relieved the beleaguered  13th Brigade in the front line, occupying trenches that had been dug by their ‘oppos from the 2nd Birmingham Pals.

The following night, Charles would've been nervously pushing any thoughts of the forthcoming battle to the back of his mind as he and his mates concentrated on digging their approach-trenches towards Falfemont Farm as quietly as they possibly could. By now they would’ve mastered the art of digging deep trenches in almost total silence - experience having taught them that any slight clunk or rattle would immediately bring down a hail of Granatenwerfer mortar bombs onto their heads…

The farm at this stage was in a sorry state, having been bombarded regularly for some time. But although little more than a pile of bricks, it was still a formidable German strongpoint, bristling with machine-guns and protected by thick belts of barbed wire.

It was situated on high ground which overlooked and threatened the Allied positions, so Charles knew that in order to carry out their attack, they'd have to scramble up a steep incline before cresting a broad plateau, with no cover, before advancing across open ground crisscrossed by enemy machine gun fire.

It's little wonder that he was nervous...

The Allied plan was to take the farm and then advance further to a line which overlooked the German held village of Combles, marked by the site of Leuze Wood (or ‘Lousy Wood’ as the Tommies preferred to call it).

On the same night that Charles and his mates were busily digging their approach-trenches, his battalion carried out a reconnaissance patrol. The patrolling Tommies were clearly not as well-versed in silent-working as Charles and his mates were, because they were overheard by a German lookout who directed machine gunfire to the area they were patrolling. The officer in command of the patrol, Lt. J Hughes, was wounded and 2 of his party went missing.

The next morning, a British artillery bombardment opened-up in preparation for the attack and as was always the case, the Germans retaliated in kind. This led to a day of ongoing tit-for-tat artillery bombardments throughout which Charles’s battalion suffered 30 casualties. They were relieved in the evening by the 2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB).

On the 3rd of September 1916, the 2nd Battalion of the KOSB attacked the farm, but the attack faltered, costing them more than 300 casualties.

The 13th Brigade (which included the 1st and 2nd Birmingham Pals) followed up at noon, attacking over terrain that was nigh-on impassible. The ground in front of Falfemont Farm had been churned-up by weeks of shelling and both battalions sustained heavy casualties from rifle and machine gun fire.

Almost inevitably, the attack ground to a halt amidst confusion and panic as an enfilade of crossfire swept across the Pals from German troops positioned under-cover in the farm and from prepared positions in the nearby Wedge Wood. Despite their horrendous situation however, the 14th Battalion somehow managed to get a foothold in the German trenches south of Wedge Wood, suffering some 86 killed and 216 wounded.

On the evening of the 3rd, after the stalled attacks on Falfemont Farm, Charles’s 16th Battalion was deployed in close support, adjacent to Angle Wood (where much bitter fighting would subsequently take place as the British and French armies attempted to ‘link up’).

The following day (September the 4th) the 1st Norfolks renewed the attack. As they went in they suffering heavily from withering German defensive fire.

Charles’s ‘A’ company of the 16th was then ordered up (along with ‘D’ company) to help the Norfolks. The Pals advanced cautiously over the open ground, using whatever cover was available to them, all the time under heavy small-arms and machine gun fire. They reached the Norfolks and as darkness fell they dug-in on the southeastern edge of the farm's curtilage.

From these consolidated positions, under the cover of night and in absolute silence, they once again dug approach-trenches, leading forward from their fox holes and shell-scrapes towards the German positions.

On the morning of the 5th of September, these approach-trenches formed the ‘jumping off’ point for the final assault on Falfemont Farm. After long periods of hard, bloody and brutal hand-to-hand fighting, the farm was eventually taken.

That same day, the evening edition of the Times newspaper reported:

“British line extended 1,500 yards east of Guillemont; Leuze Wood and all the ground between Falfemont Farm and Leuze Wood and outskirts of Ginchy in British possession.”

That evening, as young paper-sellers on the streets of London were barking out the headlines to encourage passers-by to purchase their broadsheets, the 16th Royal Warwicks, were solemnly falling back from the shattered remnants of Falfemont Farm. They were being relieved by the 16th (Irish) Division.

Those of the 16th who’d survived the fighting helped carry 195 of their wounded Pals back with them. 61 Pals would never return though, and the remains of many of those 61 would stay in the earth around Falfemont Farm for ever, their bodies never to be found...

Lance Corporal Charles Edgar Minton, a young clothier from Bewdley in Worcestershire, was one of the fallen whose remains were never recovered.

The second Despatch of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Commander in Chief of the British Armies in France and Flanders, was printed in the Supplement to the London Gazette on the 29th of December 1916. In it he gave his views on the Battle of the Somme. The following extract of his despatch refers directly to the battle in which Charles fell. Somewhat dispassionately, he reported:

“In order to keep touch with the French who were attacking on our right, the assault on Falfemont Farm on the 3rd of September was delivered three hours before the opening of the main assault. In the impetus of their first rush our troops reached the farm but could not hold it. Nevertheless, they pushed on to the north of it, and on the 4th of September delivered a series of fresh assaults upon it from the west and north. Ultimately this strongly fortified position was occupied piece by piece, and by the morning of the 5th of September the whole of it was in our possession. Meanwhile further progress had been made to the north-east of the farm, where considerable initiative was shown by the local commanders. By the evening of the same day our troops were established strongly in Leuze Wood, which on the following day was finally cleared of the enemy.”

The Field Marshall’s assessment is clear, the attack was a success and the operational objective had been achieved. 

However, whilst clear reference is made to the considerable initiative shown by the Commanders (which is unquestionably true), no reference is made to the fallen privates and NCO’s of the various regiments who took part in the attack on Falfemont Farm.

The Birmingham Pals:

In their first year in action, nearly 1,000 died across the three Birmingham City Battalions, a total to reach 2,334 by Armistice Day on November the 11th, 1918.

Between July and October 1916, the combined Pal’s losses amongst the 14th and 15th Battalions were almost 800. From Charles’s 16th Battalion, 178.

Between them, the three Birmingham Pals battalions would share 400 awards for bravery, of which Charles’s 16th Battalion would receive 168.

In an excellent article published in 2022 by the Moseleians Association (Moseley School Old Boys and Girls) the spirit of the 3rd Pals was captured perfectly:

“On today’s playing fields of Moseley School and cricket square of Attock Cricket Club, was forged the comradeship and mutual reliance to create heroes under fire among Brummies and the many volunteers who signed on and were drafted into the Pals Battalions from towns and villages across the West Midlands and further afield.”

The article goes on to confirm:

“They probably had little sense of how heroically they would conduct themselves and of the plaudits and honours that would be heaped upon them”.

Unsurprisingly, in light of the horrendous damage caused to local communities by having great swathes of a single generation wiped out piecemeal, the practice of recruiting Pals Battalions was never again considered. In World War Two a totally different approach was taken – to the extent that groups of locally based recruits were consciously diverted to different Regiments and arms of service in order to minimise the risk of further social imbalance.

A terrible lesson had been learned at a huge cost...   

Charles Minton has no known grave, he is commemorated on Pier and Face 9A, 9B and 10B of the Thiepval Memoria in France. This hugely imposing Memorial is often referred to as a Cathedral without walls.

The Thiepval Memorial bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before the 20th of March 1918 and who have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated here died between July and November 1916 – as was the case of Charles Edwin Minton.

Charles is also commemorated on the War Memorial which can be found on the external East wall of St Anne’s Church, Load Street in Bewdley, Worcestershire (a two-minute walk from number 52 where the Minton family lived and traded).

Charles’s brothers Clement, William and Bert were all equally as keen to sign-up as Charles had been. Clement served in the Machine Gun Corps, William in the Worcestershire Yeomanry, and Bert in the Royal Field Artillery.

One can only imagine how frightful it must have been for their parents William and Sarah, every time the door was knocked or when the postman could be seen approaching with an envelope in his hand.

Thankfully, all three survived the Great War and returned home safely to Bewdley…

Acknowledgements:

~ Story content: Great War Research Services @ www.greatwarresearchservices.com

~ Story content: The Moseleians Association @ www.moseleians.co.uk

~ Story content: The Long Long Trail @ www.longlongtrail.co.uk

~ Header & footer image: Great War Research Services @ www.greatwarresearchservices.com