L/CPL, CHARLES ERNEST DIXON 12/334. Born in April 1891, Charles was one of nine children to George Dixon (1845-1924) and Margaret Ann Simpson (1846-1918), of 13 Trent Avenue, Scarborough Street, Hessle Road, Hull (war pension Address). A House Builder by trade, he lived with his wife Lillian at his parents home. He was described as 5 foot, 6 inches tall, 149 lbs weight, 37-39 inch chest.
When war came he enlisted at Hull City Hall on 16th September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Sportsmen’, 3rd Hull Pals. He trained at Dalton, Ripon and Salisbury. Tragedy struck on Christmas Eve when Lillian Dixon died of a ruptured uterus and peritonitis at Hull Royal Infirmary. It sounds very much like she died in childbirth. Charles was present. It seemed to hit him hard. He went absent twice in the coming months and was duly reprimanded and fined; but off he went to war. A veteran of all the major campaigns- Egypt, the Somme and Oppy Wood- he was wounded twice and killed in action on 27th March 1918 as the Pals, newly merged, were pushed up to meet the full force of the German Spring Offensive; his body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. Charles was 26 years old. he had served in the army for 3 years and 193 days.
His war pension was left to his father, at 13 Trent Avenue, Scarborough Street, Hessle Road, Hull (War Pension address).
His brother, Sapper, George Henry Dixon, WR/508822, Royal Engineers, died of pneumonia, at 79th Gen Hospital, Taranto, Puglia, Italy, on 27/09/1918, aged 31. His wife, Elizabeth and six children also lived at 13 Trent Avenue, Scarborough Street, Hull
