BORN HULL 1890. ENLISTED HULL. WIFE KATE ETHEL CLARKSON & 2 CHILDREN LIVED ABOVE. SON OF ALBERT EDWARD & AGNES ANN PEARSON, HULL. A WELL KNOWN HULL FISH TRADE WORKER. DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 08/11/1917, AGED 27. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 15TH FEBRUARY 1918, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE CHARLES HENRY PEARSON 22832. Born in January 1890, Charles was the eldest of five sons to Albert and Agnes Pearson. A Fish Merchant’s Clerk by trade, he married Kate Ethel Clarkson at Hull Registry Office on 24th November 1909 and the couple lived with Charles’s mother-in-law at 1 Liverpool Terrace, Liverpool Street, Hull with their two sons Charles Jnr and Victor. A family man in no rush to leave his wife and sons, Charles enlisted on 8th December 1915 before his hand was forced by the Conscription Law. The story of Charles Henry Pearson is best told through a letter his wife wrote to the War Office. Dated 8th December 1917, she wrote:
Dear Sir,
I have had the official report about my husband Pte CJ Pearson 22832 11th East Yorks C Coy 31st Division being wounded and missing since 8th Nov 1917 but I have had letters from the Sergeant of the company to say that my husband died of wounds at a clearing station and the chaplain buried him, and I also received a letter from Pte GH Smith 29856 C Coy 31st Division 11th East Yorks who also told me of his death and that he was wounded and also some soldiers called to see me from the same regiment Pte WS Short 11/362 and he told me all about how my husband met his death and he said he could not understand him being posted as wounded and missing as he saw him when he was wounded and when he died. He said he saw him being buried at Roclincourt near Arras and he brought me the beads off my husbands neck so I don’t know how he can be mistaken. Hoping you will be able to let me know something more definite as suspense is worse then knowing.
Yours truly
Mrs Pearson
The army did finally confirm her husband died of wounds on 8th November 1917, though his burial place was never clarified and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; he was 27 years old.
Tragedy had already beset the Pearson family. The photograph shows Albert and his five sons. I believe Charles, being the eldest, is very possibly the taller child stood to his fathers right. Agnes Pearson had died in 1904, and two of Charles’s brothers died before the war. The war left Albert Pearson a widower with two sons.
