- See Charles Bimrose’s entry on the Board of Trade’s Ancestry public tree.
- This information updates the group’s previous research published on the former DTI website (now archived by the National Archives).
- Do you have any more information about Charles Bimrose? If so the War Memorial Research Group would love to hear from you
Name recorded on Board of Trade Memorial: C. Bimrose MC
Born: 11 March 1893, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Date of Death: 3 October 1918
Age at death: 25
Service, Regiment, Corps, etc: Notts & Derby Regiment (Sherwood Foresters)
Unit, Ship, etc: 1st/6th Battalion
Enlisted:
Rank: Second Lieutenant (Service No: 21728)
Decorations: WW1 Service Medals (Victory Medal and British War Medal) and Military Cross (MC)
War (and theatre): WW1 (France and Flanders)
Manner of Death: Killed in Action (KIA)
Family Details: Son of Daniel and Clara Bimrose of Leeds. Husband of Olive Edna Bimrose, 43 Sycamore Road, Handsworth, Birmingham
Residence: Handsworth, Birmingham
Home Department: Board of Trade – Labour Department (West Midlands Division)
Civilian Rank:
Cemetery or Memorial: Bellicourt British Cemetery (Special Memorial A.1); Board of Trade War Memorial; Memorial to Staff of the Ministry of Labour; Cockburn High School War Memorial, Leeds; Birmingham Hall of Memory and Books of Remembrance;
Biography:
Charles Bimrose MC was born on 11th March 1893. He was the son of Daniel Bimrose (1867-1944), a sub-postmaster of 36, Harlech Terrace, Dewsbury Road Beeston. His mother was Clara Thornton (1865-1895).
In the 1901 census, the Bimrose family are recorded living at 1 Park Street, Leeds.
Charles had an older brother Edgar Alan Bimrose (1892-1956). His brother also fought in WW1 as a Private in the York & Lancs Regiment (Leeds absent Voters Roll). He also had a sister Doris Clara Bimrose who died as a baby in 1895.
He was a pupil at Harehills County Council School and then at Cockburn Secondary School where he was first enrolled on 11th September 1905. His elder brother, Edgar was also admitted to the same school just over a year previously.
We know from the London Gazette of 3rd December 1915 (Issue 29390) that Charles entered into the Civil Service at the Board of Trade. He was a Male Clerk in the Labour Exchange and Insurance Branch, and served in the West Midlands Division.
During WW1, Charles enlisted as a Rifleman with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in May 1915 and his surviving WW1 medal index card indicates that he first served overseas from 3 January 1916. He served with the battalion in Salonika in the Balkans from January 1916 and then in Egypt.
We also know from an entry in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1919 that he contracted enteric (an intestinal disease) in Alexandria and was hospitalised and was returned home to England by train. Whilst on leave back in England, we also know that Charles married Olive Edna Price (1893-?), the daughter of Alfred Price. They were married on 15 May 1917 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire.
But Charles’s war did not end at this time because on 6 December 1917 he was commissioned as an officer and became a Second Lieutenant in the 1st/6th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. This battalion was part of the 46th (North Midland) Division, a Territorial Division that had originally been sent to France on 23rd – 28th February 1915.
We know that Charles served with the Sherwood Foresters as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France from 12 April 1918 onwards.
The last battle that he fought in was the Battle of St Quentin Canal (29 September to 2 October 1918). It was during this battle, on 29 September 1918 that Charles Bimrose won his Military Cross (MC) which was the highest award of bravery and quite an outstanding achievement, as the British General Sir Frederick Maurice recounted the action from 27 September to 1 October 1918:
“The 9th Corps attacked the St. Quentin Canal at and north of Bellenglise, the 46th Division, North Midland Territorials, leading, the men advancing equipped with life-belts, requisitioned from the Channel steamboats, and carrying mats and rafts. Here and there they managed to cross by foot bridges, which the enemy had been unable to destroy, but the majority dropped down the sheer sides of the canal, swam across, clambered out and stormed the German trenches on the top of the eastern bank. Then swinging southward they surprised the enemy before he had realized the new direction of the attack, and on this one day [September 29th, 1918] the division captured over 4,000 prisoners and 70 guns.”
Charles Bimrose’s MC was posthumously announced in the London Gazette on 14 February 1919 (Issue 31183), and his citation was published on 29 July 1919 (Issue 31480). It reads:
“2nd Lt. Charles Bimrose, 1/6th Bn. Notts & Derby R., T.F. For marked gallantry and skillful leadership in the attack through Bellinglise and Lehaucourt on September 29th 1918. Finding both flanks held up by machine-gun fire, he took his platoon to the left and cleared out two machine-guns and their teams. Later, he pushed on into Lehaucourt and did excellent work in clearing up hostile posts and eventually reached his objective on the east side of the village. By his dash and determined leadership he linked up the actions of the battalions working on the right and left of the village.“
The war diary of the 6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters for 13 November 1918 records a number of awards of medals “for gallantry and devotion to duty during the attack on Bellenglise” including six military crosses, of which one was to Charles Bimrose (PRO, WO 95/2694).
Charles Bimrose was killed in action four days later on 3 October 1918 near Ramicourt, north-west of St Quentin. This was on the day after the battle ended, with just over a month of the war remaining. He probably did not know he had been recommended for this medal for “Distinguished and meritorious service in battle”.
He left behind his wife, Olive, and is buried at Bellicourt British Cemetery which was started after the Battle of the St Quentin Canal and later enlarged by further burials from surrounding battlefields and smaller cemeteries. The cemetery which was designed by Charles Holden, now contains 1,204 burials and commemorations from WW1. Charles’ grave is one of 21 special memorials to a casualty who is known or believed to be buried in the cemetery.
Charles’s death was reported in several local newspapers. He is also remembered by an entry in the De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour (1914-1924) which is an important source of information for WW1 historians. Melville Henry Massue, the 9th Marquis De Ruvigny (1868-1921) aimed to produce a permanent record of every officer, non-commissioned officer and man who died in WW1. It was an epic project and he produced 5 volumes containing biographies of over 25,000 casualties and over 7,000 photographs.
Charles is commemorated on two Civil Service War Memorials – the Board of Trade War Memorial and the Memorial to Staff of the Ministry of Labour. He is also commemorated on a war memorial at his former school of Cockburn High School (which is now called the College of Arts) in Leeds.
Charles is also remembered in also remembered in Birmingham’s Hall of Memory which was opened in 1925 and built (as mentioned earlier by the Barnsley construction company). Inside the memorial shrine, which was almost entirely entirely constructed by Birmingham craftsmen, there are three Books of Remembrance on display. Charles’s name is recorded amongst more than 23,500 men who died.
(Sources – Sir Frederick Maurice, published in “The Last Four Months”, 1919, as cited by www.Firstworldwar.com, who cited Source Records of the Great War, Vol.VI, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923; Cockburn High School Records, held in the Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds)
Board of Trade War Memorial 