Canty, Charles Henry

BORN HULL 1892. ENLISTED HULL. SON OF HENRY & ANNIE CANTY ABOVE. ALSO LIVED 116 WITHAM. HDM 5/2/19.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE CHARLES HENRY CANTY 14/125. Born in September 1892, Charles was the third of five children to Harry and Annie Canty of 116 Witham, Hull. A Shop Assistant before the war, he enlisted at Hull City Hall on 30th October 1915 and became a member of the 14th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, the ‘t’Others’. Standing at 5ft 4″ and weighing 115lbs Charles was hardly the stuff of warrior legend, but by 1918 the trenches were full of sallow youths under-nourished and inexperienced and to them, with his time in the line, he must have seemed like a giant. Charles was wounded in the right arm in mid-1917 and shipped back to Blighty to recover. Upon his return to France he was transferred to the 10th Battalion. Charles Canty was killed in action on 7th September 1918 as the Pals attacked enemy positions around Soyer Farm and came under heavy defensive fire. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial; he was 26 years old.
The 10th Battalions War diary for that day, records that the allied barrage was to be “liberally mixed with smoke” but for the first 2 minutes of the barrage it “lay high” and the movement of our troops for those 2 minutes was “unconcealed” and “the enemy mg (machine guns) remained undealt with and caused the greatest trouble to our advancing troops.” The war diary goes on to record that 2 officers were wounded and another 2 officers and 50 other ranks were killed in the action. War Diaries tend to name the officers but not the other ranks. If you haven’t got a copy of the war diaries the ones for the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Battalions, from their arrival in France in March 1916, can be downloaded from the National Archives for a mere £3.36. There’s 850pages across 4 pdf documents. Here’s the link http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details.