Betts, Joshua Charles

BORN HULL 1891. KNOWN AS CHARLES. SON OF JOSHUA CHARLES BETTS (1870-1931) & HARRIET ISABELLA MITCHELL (1871-1956), WHO LIVED AT 6, LUCAS SQUARE, SYKES STREET AND 12 NELSON SQUARE, GEORGE STREET. ONE OF THREE SONS KILLED IN WW1.

HE MARRIED IN HULL, 1915. HIS WIFE, ALICE WAUDBY BETTS (BORN 19/10/1892), LIVED AT 8, MYRTLE VILLAS, VICTOR STREET, HULL (CWGC ADDRESS) AND 6, LUCAS SQUARE, SYKES STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS).  JOSHUA CHARLES BETTS WAS A WELL KNOWN FOOTBALL PLAYER. HE WAS A WOOD SAWYER BY TRADE.

HE ENLISTED IN HULL. SERVED WITH THE 529TH EAST RIDING ROYAL ENGINEERS. JOSHUA WAS KILLED BY A SHELL, CARRYING BACK THE WOUNDED, AGED 26.

HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH, IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 1ST JUNE 1917. *

HE IS LISTED ON THE EAST RIDING ROYAL ENGINEER, MEMORIAL AT HULL MINSTER. HE IS BURIED AT FEUCHY CHAPEL BRITISH CEMETERY, WANCOURT, PAS DE CALAIS, FRANCE. HIS GRAVE READS, “THE SWEETEST OF MEMORIES IS ALL THAT IS LEFT”

HIS WIDOW ALICE WAS AWARDED A WEEKLY WAR PENSION OF 13 SHILLINGS AND NINE PENCE.
HIS BROTHERS, GEORGE BETTS (1896-1916) & JOHN BETTS (1892-1916), WERE ALSO BOTH KILLED AT SERRE, ON THE 13/11/1916, SERVING WITH THE EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. THEIR UNCLE CHARLES MITCHELL, OF THE EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, ALSO DIED.

IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 13TH MAY 1918, HIS PARENTS WROTE OF THEIR THREE SONS LOST IN THE WAR, THE FOLLOWING VERSE: –

“PEACEFUL BE YOUR REST DEAR SONS, ‘TIS SWEET TO BREATHE YOUR NAME, IN LIFE WE LOVED YOU VERY DEAR, IN DEATH WE DO THE SAME.” FROM MOTHER, FATHER, SISTERS AND BROTHERS.