Charles Edward Golesworthy (Service No. 947759) was killed in action on 16 April 1945, aged 26. He was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery, 64 Medium Regiment. He was initially buried at Margraten and subsequently re-interred on 1 May, 1947 in grave III. A. 11 at the Overloon Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery.

No photo of Charles Edward Golesworthy has yet been found. Should anyone reading this have a photo of him or further information regarding him – or if they are aware of any errors in his biography below can they please contact the Foundation?

Family background

Charles was the son of Joseph Charles and Mabel Mary Golesworthy of Battersea, London. Mabel’s maiden name was Bundy.
 
Charles’ father, Joseph Charles Golesworthy, was the son of Caleb Samuel Golesworthy and Mary Ann Arthurs who had married in 1865 in the St James’ district of Westminster. However, both Caleb and Mary Ann came from Devon.  Caleb was born in 1841 in Honiton and Mary Ann in 1842 near Tiverton. They had eight children between 1869 and 1888, of whom Joseph was the sixth, born on 14 November 1881 in Battersea.
 
Caleb was working as a Carrier’s Fitter in 1871, then a Carriage or Coach Finisher from 1881 to 1911, latterly in the railway industry. By 1921 he was described as a Cabinet Maker.
 
In 1871 Caleb and Mary were living with their first child in New Road, Sussex Street, Battersea, Wandsworth. By 1881, they were living at 19, Crichton Street, Clapham, Wandsworth with their first five children. They also had three lodgers. By 1891 they were living at 19, Gonsalva Road, Battersea, Wandsworth with all eight children. However, Mary Ann Golesworthy died in 1896 in Wandsworth district.
 
In 1901 Caleb was still living in Gonsalva Road with four of his younger children, including Joseph who was working as an Engine Stoker. By 1911 Caleb was living on his own at 15  Foley Place Wandsworth Road, Wandsworth. At this time, Joseph was living at 59A Wix’s Lane Battersea in the household his brother in law and sister, Frederick G and Rose J Martin, and their two children. Joseph was now working as a Brass Foundry Core Maker.
 
In June 1921 Caleb, aged 80, was living at the Queenswood Boarding House, King’s Avenue, Clapham. It was reported in the Streatham News of 8 May 1925 that Caleb S Golesworthy aged 84, an inmate of Swaffield Road Institution, Wandsworth, had a fall in the yard while at exercise on March 13, fracturing his right leg. He was taken to St James’ Hospital, where he died on April 27, the cause of death being senile decay, accelerated by the accident.
 
Charles’ Mother, Mabel Mary Bundy, was the daughter of Edward Bundy and Eliza Mary Moore who had married in the Strand district of London in 1886. Edward was born in 1859/60 in Woolwich, Kent and Eliza in 1859 in Devizes, Wiltshire. They had three children in Battersea between 1887 and 1890 of whom Mabel, born 9 September 1887, was the eldest. The youngest died in the year she was born. Edward Bundy was a Carpenter or Joiner.
 
In 1891, Edward and Eliza were living with their two surviving children at 14, Lockington Road, Battersea, Wandsworth. However, Eliza died in 1894 in Wandsworth aged just 34. Edward seems to have married again as in 1901 Edward was shown with wife Emma Bundy (born 1859 in Aston Abbots, Buckinghamshire) at 14, St Philip Street, Battersea with Edward’s two children.
 
It seems that Emma Bundy may have died in 1908 in South Stoneham, Hampshire, aged 49. In 1911, Edward, now shown as a widower, was living at 70 Gonsalva Road Battersea. Both Mabel and her brother were living with him. Mabel was working as a dressmaker. They were living in the same road as the Golesworthy’s had lived in 1901, so may have overlapped. Edward Bundy died in 1914 in Wandsworth aged 54.
 
Joseph C Golesworthy married Mabel M Bundy in Wandsworth in 1917.
 
Charles E Golesworthy was born on 18 April 1919 in Wandsworth. He was their only child.
 
In 1921, Joseph and Mabel Golesworthy were living  with Charles at 123, Ingelow Road, Battersea. Joseph was working as a Labourer in a Brass Foundry (Wray Ltd, Asgrove Roadd), but was out of work at the time. They were at the same address in September 1939. Joseph was a Core Maker in a Brass Foundry. Charles was working as a Metal Machinist Improver (Milling & Turning etc. ).
 
Joseph C Golesworthy died in 1954 and Mabel Mary Golesworthy in 1973, both in Lambeth.

Military career

It isn’t known when Charles E Golesworthy joined the Royal Artillery, 64 Medium Regiment, but it is likely to have been quite early in the war.
 
64 (London) Medium Regiment RA (TA) was formed as a duplicate of 53 Medium Regiment with two batteries in 1939. It moved to the Middle East in 1941, serving in Egypt, Libya, Greece and Crete before returning to Egypt in June 1941. It continued to serve in the Middle East & North Africa through to Tunisia before returning to the UK.
 
In 1940, Italy had declared war on Britain and France, and invaded Egypt. However, the large Commonwealth garrison stationed there swiftly repelled them, pushing them back to the Italian colony of Libya. Optimism was short-lived, however. In February 1941, Erwin Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika landed in Tripoli, at roughly the same time as Winston Churchill withdrew many of his troops to fight in Greece. After arriving in Libya, Rommel quickly repelled the Allies back into Egypt. He outflanked and outfought them at every turn. The Allies left a force of mainly Australian troops in the port of Tobruk. These brave soldiers denied Rommel access to the Mediterranean. Back in Egypt, the Allied Forces regrouped as the Eighth Army. These troops then launched a counteroffensive in late 1941 – known as Operation Crusader – to relieve the besieged ‘rats of Tobruk’, who had held out against Rommel’s bombardment for almost eight months.
 
Before long though, the Eighth Army again suffered a series of crushing defeats. The survivors scrambled in disarray to prepare for battle at El Alamein, a small Egyptian railway halt on the Mediterranean coast. With a new defensive line planned in Palestine, Axis victory in North Africa seemed all but certain. However, the Allies succeeded in the First Battle of El Alamein in halting the Axis advance into Egypt but ended in a stalemate. This took place between 1 July and 27 July 1942.
 
It is likely that it was during his battle that Charles was taken prisoner. He was initially shown as wounded and missing while serving as a Gunner in the Western Desert in the Middle East on 6 July 1942. The casualty list on which this was reported named a further 24 men from the same Regiment who were also missing. For Charles, this was later changed to missing rather than wounded and missing and then subsequently to Prisoner of War.
 
He seems to have been initially held in Italy in 1943. However, in 1944 and 1945 he was recorded as being held at Stalag 4A at Hohenstein in Ostpreußen (POW Number 247677) . This was a camp which was located 20 miles East North East of Dresden.
 
After the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, conditions for American and British prisoners worsened considerably. They were particularly affected by the withholding of their Red Cross parcels, leading to general malnourishment and consequently a number of deaths from pneumonia. As the Red Army advanced, the camp received more Belgian and French POWs from camps further east. In February 1945, officer prisoners were marched westwards. The camp was finally liberated by the Russians in April 1945.
 
Charles was killed by aerial activity after liberation on 16 April 1945.

From FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Military Records, Electoral Rolls
Ancestry Military records
Streatham News 08 May 1925
Wikipedia Stalag IV-A
https://ra39-45.co.uk/units/medium-regiments/64-london-medium-regiment-rata
https://history.companyofheroes.com/el-alamein/battle-of-el-alamein-ww2/

Research Sue Reynolds, Elaine Gathercole