Charles Edgar Whitby Hartt

Born: 1898

Died: 26 February 1916

Rank and Regiment: Private G.5552 in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment

Resting Place: body unrecovered

Memorial: All Saints Runhall, United Kingdom and; Arras Memorial, France

Charles was born in 1898 in Carbrooke, the son of James and Emma (nee Honeywood), his second wife.

He was killed on 26 February 1916, aged just 17; his body was never recovered, and he is one of the obscene total of 34,818 men commemorated on the Arras Memorial. He is recorded as “son of James and Emma Hartt of Mount Pleasant, Barnham Broom”.

Virtually everything else about him is uncertain, including how his surname should actually be spelt.

James Hartt was first married to Jane nee Johnson, who died in 1890 aged 35 leaving seven children. He married for a second time in Swaffham in 1892, and the registration of his marriage to Emma Honeywood, a native of Bungay, records his surname as Hartt.

By 1901 the family (listed as “Hartt”) are living in Brandon Parva, where they are still living in 1911 at which time we read in the Census return that James and Emma had had six children, including Charles, of whom three had died. James signs that Census return “Hart”.

The next mystery about Charles is, of course, how a lad of 17 managed to be with the Army on the front line. Virtually none of his military records appear to survive, so all must be conjecture. The Military Service Act, which introduced conscription, did not come into force until 2 March 1916, and in any event the minimum age for conscription was to be 18, which was supposedly the minimum age for military service. Presumably, Charles claimed to be over 18 when he enlisted.

While the location where Charles Hartt died was to be involved in the carnage of the Battle of the Somme, he was of course killed in action on 26 February, over four months before the Battle of the Somme commenced.

One record which does survive concerning Charles Hartt is a pension record which records his next of kin as “Emma Hartt, Runhall, Attleborough, Norfolk” which explains why he appears on the War Memorial of Runhall when he would appear to have had a far closer connection with Brandon Parva.

Arras Memorial, France