Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE CHARLES SAMUEL CHALLANS 12/51. Born in January 1886 in Portsmouth, Charles was the eldest of two sons to Charles and Alice Challans. The family moved north soon after for his younger brother, Albert was born in Hull in 1888; the pair were lodging together at 6 Caroline Street at the time of the 1911 Census. A Furniture Dealer by trade, Charles enlisted on 14th September 1914 at City Hall joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. He regretted it soon after. I think it’s fair to say the strictures of military discipline did not suit his temperament. He was charged several times with absence from April 1915 onwards, and was charged with desertion on 23rd July when he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. They released him in time to pack him off to the war. He served in Egypt and in the trenches of France from March 1916. At 2.15pm on 27th August 1916 he was witnessed deliberately shooting himself in the left foot and charged with administering a self-inflicted wound for which he received a sentence of 90 days Field Punishment No.1. He returned to the front line on 5th November and was killed in action 8 days later at Serre on the Somme. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; he was 30 years old. As ever, it’s the troublemakers who make me smile the most.
BORN PORTSMOUTH 1886. LIVED IN HULL AT 11 ASH GROVE, PARK ROAD. HIS WIFE CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH CHALLANS (NEE HULL) LIVED AT 68, CHARLES STREET, HULL, 38 CHARLOTTE STREET, HULL AND 6, CAROLINE STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). HE HAD 3 CHILDREN.
NOTE: CHALLANS BROTHERS (BOTH WOUNDED) SERVING & LIVING AT 134 JAMES RECKITT AVENUE, GARDEN VILLAGE, HULL (HULL DAILY MAIL, 27/7/1916).
