Charles Ingham

War Service

Shortly after war was declared in August 1914 Charles, at the age of just 20, volunteered to “do his bit for King and Country” and joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps on 17 November 1914. After training, Charles arrived in France on 24 March 1915. On that day, the 3rd Battalion King’s Royal Rifles had moved out of the trenches, marching to billets at Poperinghe to regroup and rest in this relative safer location after their time in the trenches trying to stem the tide of the German advances and suffering losses. Charles would have been one of the replacement men to make up the battalion losses, joining his battalion a few days after arriving in France.
On the 3 April 1915 Charles, with his battalion, was ordered to leave Poperinghe and to march towards Ypres. After four days of marching, the battalion arrived at Ypres at 7:40pm on the 7 April 1915.
Three days later the battalion entered the trenches in an area known as Polygon Wood. Their route was via the Menin gate in the town Ypres which according to the entry in the Battalion Diary states: “the latter was being shelled by heavy enemy Howitzers”. Whilst in the trenches, between the 10 April and 18 April, the battalion duties included general maintenance of the trenches, while suffering occasional shelling and sniper-fire but also with days relatively quiet. The battalion was relieved in the trenches returning to billets in Vlamertinge at 5:30am on 18 April. Entry in the battalion diary for the 19 April states “a day of complete rest” but this did not last for long. At 5:00pm on 20 April Charles was again to march along the Menin road and through the Menin gate back to the trenches in Polygon Wood.
By 1.00am on the 21 April the occupation of the trenches was completed. During the next few days in Polygon Wood Charles’ battalion was subjected to heavy shelling and rifle fire. Charles Ingham was one of the unfortunate men who became a casualty of this enemy action. Records state that Charles was killed in action on 25 April 1915 and remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial, the very same gate he had marched through four days earlier.
A further entry in the Battalion Diary on 27 April 1915 states, “without fighting we have lost 10% of our effectiveness, nearly all shellfire”. For the month of April there were 24 officers and men killed, 59 wounded and 61 sick. Charles was one of those killed, only 160 days after joining the army.
Charles’ personal possessions comprising a watch, purse, disc, pocket book and four letters were returned to his mother at Hatfield House, Church Road, Altofts. The memorial at the site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Ypres Salient.
When news of Charles’ death arrived, there would have been sadness and grief in Altofts. Unfortunately there was more terrible news to follow when, in 1917, Charles’ brother Frank was also reported as “killed in action” whilst serving with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

Family Life

Charles was born at Newton, Wakefield, Yorkshire on 15 November 1894, the third son of Joseph and Sarah Ingham. Some three years later their fourth son, Frank, was born. At that time Joseph’s trade or profession was recorded as a “yeast dealer”. Towards the end of 1898 tragedy struck when Joseph died, aged just 39 years. Sarah, now only 30 years old, had become a widow with four children: George aged 11, Fred aged 9, Charles aged 4 and Frank aged just 1 year old. Frank too would become a casualty of the Great War.
Sarah was still trading as a yeast merchant when she met and married Robert Clegg, a colliery draughtsman from Altofts, at St John’s Parish Church, Wakefield on 14 March 1903.
There had been many changes in Charles’ short life. In 1911 the family had moved to live at 121, Church Road, Altofts and there were three additions to the Clegg family: John, Edna and baby William who was just five months old. At this time Charles was 16 years old. His occupation, recorded in the Census of that year, is “assistant in chemistry” in “coal mining”. Charles’ two older brothers, George and Fred, and his stepfather Robert were also employed in the coal mining industry. However, Charles’ younger brother Frank was still at school

Menin Gate, Ypres