Born: 17 November, 1876, Meltham
Died: 27 September 1917
Buried:
Address: 110 Undercliffe Road, Eccleshill
Parents: James & Caroline
Spouse: Annie, nee Wilcock
Siblings: Hoseph, Charlotte Amelia, Fred Willy, Ambrose, Caroline
Occupation:
Organisations/clubs:
Military
Rank: L Cpl
Medals/awards:
Rolls of Honour: Eccleshill, Park and St Luke’s; Tyne Cot Memorial
Children: Phyllis, Ivy, George, Stanley, Kathleen, Leslie
Regiment: King’s Royal Rifles
Garside Charlesworth
Garside Charlesworth
was born on the 17th
November 1876 the son
of James and Caroline
Charlesworth.
Garside was baptised at
St Bartholomew church,
Meltham on 12th
September 1880 and his
father is shown as a
policeman of Little
Lever.
In 1881 the family were
living at 5 Seddon Street, Little
Lever, Bolton, Lancashire, and
James and Caroline had five
children, James is still working as
a police constable.
By 1891 the family had moved to
Blackburn living at 23 Elizabeth
Street, Darwin, and
Joseph had retired from
the Police Force. Another
child had been born to
them.
Garside married at St
Luke’s Church, Eccleshill
on 6th March 1909. He
was 32 years old, a
traveller, living at 3
Fountain Street, Bradford.
He married Annie
Wilcock who was 21
years of age, living at 7 Undercliffe
Road, Eccleshill, and the daughter
of Thomas Wilcock a miner.
Garside and Annie had six children,
Phyllis born in 1909 in Eccleshill,
Ivy born in 1910 in Dudley where
in 1911 the family were living at 4
Lordsfield Place, Dudley Hill.
Garside was working as a traveller
in Pianoforte for Sykes and
Company. There were a further
four children born, George in 1912,
Stanley in 1914, Kathleen in 1915
and Leslie in 1917.
Garside had served in the South
African campaign being present at
Nicholson’s Nek and the siege of
Ladysmith and re-enlisted at the
outbreak of War on 13th January
1915.
The family at this time were living
at 110 Undercliffe Road. He joined
the Kings Royal Rifles Corp. as
L.Cpl. R/9028.
The Battalion landed at Le Havre
on 17th November 1915 for service
on the Western Front.
The Kings Royal Rifles were
involved in many of the battles
fought in this area and Garside was
killed in action on the 27th
September 1917 during the Battle
of Polygon Wood near Ypres,
Belgium which took place from the
26th September to the 3rd October
1917. He was 40 years of age and
left a widow with six children, all
under the age of 8 years.
He is remembered at the Tyne Cot
Memorial.
He left his effects to his wife Annie
and children, who received
£7.15.8d on the 14th January 1918
and a War Gratuity of £12.10.0d on
the 18th December 1919.
Researched and written by Jean
Britteon, to whom many thanks.
On Friday 15 November 1915, the Shipley
Times & Express published an interview with
Garside after he recovered from being
gassed.
Pte G Charlesworth of 110 Undercliffe Road,
Eccleshill, who has been fighting with the
Kings Royal Rifles, has been home on leave
In an interview with our representative he
said he fought in the Boer War. He went
through the siege of Ladysmith and was also
in the engagement at Lang’s Neck. He
possesses two medals with bars.
After the relief of Ladysmith he was one of
the guards to take 5,000 Boer prisoners to
Ceylon and his work having been
accomplished, he returned and again took
part in the war.
Gorgeous Durbar
From South Africa, he was sent to India and
was present at the great and gorgeous
Durbar at Delhi.
Though he had finished his time on the
reserve when the present war broke out, he
rejoined his old regiment in January of the
present year and was sent over to France in
May.
His first experience of the German as a
fighting man was at Ypres. There they
suffered a terrible bombardment and lost
many men, some of them being buried by the
collapse of the parapet.
A German bombardment was not the firing of
a single gun with a rest in between but a
continuous shoal of shells coming over
sometimes all day and all night long. The
wonder was that anything was left alive.
From Ypres, they were sent to St Eloi, there
the Germans attacked in force but were
repulsed at the point of the bayonet. Many of
their casualties were caused by snipers who
were always busy.
His last place was at Armentiere where the
trenches of the Boches were only 45 yards
away. This short distance between friend and
foe lent itself to fighting with hand grenades
where both sides worked overtime to gain the
advantage.
If anyone rashly exposed himself for a
second it was as much as his life was worth.
The only safe method to see what was going
on was by means of trench periscope.
Gas cloud
While at Chapelle, Armentiere, Pte
Charlesworth was slightly gassed. As he
explained, the gas cloud sometimes comes
upon them suddenly and though they are all
provided with smoke helmets and the
chemical solution used is kept handy, they
have hardly time to soak their headgear
before the gas is on them.
He had to be carried out of the trench on a
stretcher to spend three weeks in hospital in
France and seven weeks in a similar
institution in London.
Having quite recovered from the effects of
the poison, he rejoined his regiment on
Wednesday.
He spoke in the highest terms of Princess
Patricia’s Canadian Regiment and the
Ghurkas with whom he had been fighting and
also of the splendid work done by our
aviators.
