Charles Valentine Tomlinson

Charles Valentine was the son of Edward Tomlinson and his wife Isabella or Isobel (née Hardy). His father was born in Shirland, Derbyshire, in about 1862 and his mother in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in about 1864. They were married at Mansfield SS Peter & Paul in April 1894 and had five children who were born in Bolsover: George Edward b. 1895, Charles Valentine birth registered 1897 (J/F/M), John Lionel b. 1899, Stuart Henry b. 1904 and Isobel Marjorie Sarah (Marjorie) b. 1909. In 1901 Edward, a farm bailiff, his wife and their three children George (5), Charles (4) and John (2) were living in Bolsover. By 1911 the family had moved to Leyton Avenue, Mansfield; Edward was still employed as a farm bailiff. All five children were in the home on the night of the census: George an office boy (Municipal employee), Charles, John, Stuart (6) and Marjorie (1). Edward and Isobella were living at 'The Limes', Cropwell Butler, in 1914 when their eldest son, George, enlisted in August 1914. George also named his siblings Stuart and Marjorie of the same address as his next of kin. Edward died in 1925; the probate record gave his address as 'The Limes', Cropwell Butler. Isabella died in a Nottingham nursing home in 1935. The probate record gave her home address as Sutton Passey's Crescent, Wollaton, Nottingham; her son Stuart, a schoolmaster, was one of her executors. Her three other children also survived her. George Edward, served in the Royal Field Artillery (82158 Gunner). He enlisted on 17 August 1914 aged 19 years 11 days. George served at home until 10 May 1915 and then with the BEF France from 11 May. He was wounded in action on 27 September 1917 and admitted to 32 Casualty Clearing Station with shrapnel wounds to the neck, but was transferred to No. 7 General Hospital St Omer the same day. George was transferred to England on 17 October and admitted to East Leeds War Hospital the following day. On recovering, he was posted to RA Command Depot, South Camp, Ripon, in February 1918. He was then treated for influenza at Brook War Hospital, Woolwich, between 12 and 24 June 1918. George served at home until he transferred to the Army Reserve on 13 June 1919; he was discharged on 31 March 1920.

1911 - Charles was a scholar

The 11th (Service) Bn Sherwood Foresters was raised at Derby in September 1914, one of the battalions of Kitchener's Third New Army. It served in France from August 1915. Charles Valentine was killed on the first day of the Somme. Battalions attacking Ovillers on 1st July 1916 had to cross 'Mash Valley' one of the widest expanses of No Man's Land (750 yards) along the entire Somme front. Today, looking from Ovillers Cemetery (German front line) towards distant houses (British front line) across open fields offering little cover, the magnitude of their task is still evident. 11th Battalion Sherwood Foresters' War Diary recorded: 'Casualties along the whole line were very heavy and a general attempt was made to crawl forward under intense machine gun and shrapnel fire, any available cover being made use of.... Lt Colonel Watson, walking diagonally across the front collecting men as he went gave fresh impetus to the advance by his personal example... A third attempt, led by Captain C E Hudson*, to reach the German trenches by the sunken road on the right flank was made but... was brought to a standstill by heavy frontal and flank fire as they came over the brow of the hill in the last 80 yards. The casualties sustained by the battalion during the day amounted to 21 officers and 508 men. The strength of the battalion on entering the trenches on 26th June was 27 officers and 710 men.' 11th Bn Sherwood Foresters War Diary TNA WO95/21871(3). 125 men from 11th Battalion Sherwood Foresters were killed during the attack on Ovillers (CWGC Debt of Honour Register). *John Cotterill adds 'The man who brought the 11th Foresters out of action on 1 July and, one of the 6 unwounded officers, was Capt Edward Hudson who would go on to get a VC as CO of 11th Foresters on Asiago Plateau in Italy in 1918'. 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment suffered 264 fatalities during the same advance. Concerns of their CO Lieutenant Colonel Edward Thomas Falkiner Sandys DSO, a brave and well respected officer, that his battalion would be badly mauled crossing such an expanse of open ground with uncut wire an added hazard, did not impress his superiors. Sandys was wounded during the attack and evacuated to the UK. Depressed at the fate of so many men who had trusted him, Sandys shot himself in a London hotel room and died a few days later. 8th Division's Official History records a total of 5,121 casualties on 1st July 1916. Charles is buried in Blighty Valley Cemetery, Authuille Wood, France (grave ref. II.I.8). CWGC - History of Blighty Alley Cemetery (extract): the villages of Authuille (formerly Authuile) and Aveluy are 4 km from the town of Albert. 'Blighty Valley was the name given by the Army to the lower part of the deep valley running down South-Westward through Authuile Wood to join the river between Authuile and Aveluy; a railway was carried along it soon after July, 1916, and it was for some time an important (though inevitably a dangerous) route. The upper part of the valley was called Nab Valley. Blighty Valley Cemetery is almost at the mouth of the valley, a little way up its northern bank ... Blighty Valley Cemetery was begun early in July 1916, at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, and used until the following November. At the Armistice it contained 212 graves, but was then greatly enlarged when 784 graves were brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries to the east. Most of these concentrated graves were of men who died on 1 July 1916. The only important graveyard concentrated into Blighty Valley Cemetery was Quarry Post Cemetery, Authuile Wood which was used from July 1916 to February 1917, chiefly by units of the 12th (Eastern) Division, and contained the graves of 50 soldiers from the United Kingdom.' (www.cwgc.org) Military Research by David Nunn

Inscription on family headstone, Cropwell Butler cemetery: 'To the memory of our beloved father and mother Edward and Isabella Tomlinson, died Feb. 26th, 1925, died Oct. 8th 1935. And their son, Charles Valentine, killed in action in France, July 1st 1916.' Charles' brother George Edward served in the Royal Artillery (82158 Gunner) during the war. (See 'Family history')