Ranyard | Charles William
Biography
Charles William Ranyard died on 12th October, 1944. He was 26 years of age and was a Lance Corporal in the 1stBattalion of the Suffolk Regiment (Service No. 4350904). He was initially buried at the Bossenhoekweg in Overloon and later re-interred in the Overloon War Graves Cemetery.
Military career
Charles William Ranyard enlisted on 4 December 1941. He stated that he had been born in Louth, Lincolnshire on 31 May, 1918. He was described as being 5ft 6in tall, weighed 148 ½ lbs and had hazel eyes and dark hair. He initially gave his address as c/o Mrs Seroson, Lairgate, Beverley but later changed it to Mount Pleasant Farm, Bleasby Moor, Market Rasen, Lincs. He named his mother, Mrs A Ranyard of the latter address, as his next of kin. He gave his religion as Church of England. He had worked as a Bricklayer before he enlisted. He was declared A1 medically fit.
He was initially posted as a Private to No. 5 Infantry Training Centre of the East Yorkshire Regiment. He was posted to the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment on 16 March 1942. This Battalion had been formed in 1940 and assigned to 203 Infantry Brigade. It was transferred to 73 Infantry Brigade in July 1941 and to 162 Infantry Brigade in September 1942.
Charles was sent on Agricultural Leave on 15 May 1942. He seems to have also been away from his Battalion for a period from 23 December 1942 to 22 February 1943 as he was put on Y List B. This may be because he had some sort of illness or injury. He was again given Agricultural Leave from 27 April 1943 to 24 May 1943 and also from 15 December 1943 to 31 December 1943.
He was promoted to the position of Unpaid Lance Corporal on 31 December 1943 and this was converted to a Paid position on 7 January 1944.
His Service Record indicates that he arrived in Europe on 9 July 1944. It is understood that the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment supplied many reinforcements for the 2nd Battalion of that Regiment on 31st July, after they had suffered significant casualties since D-Day. However, it seems that Charles was instead transferred to the 2/6th Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment on 30 July, rather than to the East Yorkshires.
This Battalion served as part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division alongside battalions of the North Staffordshire Regiment. The division was sent to France in late June 1944 to fight in the Battle for Caen in which the Division performed well. However, due to a severe shortage of infantrymen in the British Army at the time, the division was broken up in August 1944 and its units were used as replacements for other British divisions who had suffered heavy casualties. On 17 August 1944, less than 3 weeks after joining this Battalion, Charles was therefore transferred again – this time to the 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment.
The 1st Battalion had landed on Sword beach on D-Day and was involved in attacking and taking the Hillman Fortress on D-Day itself. They continued to fight in Normandy, including severe battles which cost many lives at Chateau de la Londe and at Tinchebrai.
Charles was one of 116 men who arrived in the 1st Suffolks from the 2/6th Staffs on 18 August. They were distributed within the Battalion. On 20 August the Battalion marched to La Chapelle au Moine, south of Flers where they remained for two weeks training for what was to come. On 3 September they moved on, crossing the Seine to reach Farceaux near Les Andelys – a move which covered 130 miles and took 16 hours. They remained there for 13 days. On 16 September they were ordered to move into Belgium. This required them to cross the Meuse- Escaut Canal which they succeeded in doing on 19 September, reaching Hamont the following day. They were then ordered to advance into the Netherlands, taking Weert on 22 September. They left Weert on 27 September reaching De Rips on 29 September.
They left De Rips for Molenhoek, which is just south of Nijmegen, on 1 October. By this time, the Allies had failed to take the Bridge at Arnhem, so they were left in a narrow salient through the Netherlands. The aim now was to attack Overloon and clear the enemy west of the River Maas in what was known as Operation Aintree.
The Battalion therefore swung round to the south, passing through Mook and Rijkevoort to approach occupied Overloon from the north. The attack on Overloon was delayed by heavy rain and very muddy conditions until noon on the 12 October. The plan was that the 1st Suffolk Regiment would attack on the right while the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment would proceed on the left. An artillery barrage moved forward 100 yds every 5 minutes with the Battalion following behind. The Battalion reached their objective that day which was just to the west of Overloon. However, one officer and 9 men of the 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment were killed, including Charles William Ranyard, and a further 2 officers and 55 men were wounded. Overloon was successfully liberated on 14th October, but at a large cost in lives.
He had served for a total of 2 years and 313 days of which 96 days were in North West Europe. He was awarded medals as follows: 1939-45 Star, France & Germany Star, War Medal 1939/45.
Family history
Charles was born in the small village of Welton le Wold, between Market Rasen and Louth in Lincolnshire in 1918 to Ernest and Annie Ranyard.
Ernest Ranyard had married Annie Rushby in 1906 in the district of Louth in Lincolnshire. Both were born in 1884. They were both from long established Lincolnshire farming families, though their families moved frequently to find work. Ernest and Annie went on to have children as follows: George Ernest 1909, Cyril Ephraim 1911, Herbert Dennis 1913, Jack 1915, Charles William 1918, Ida M 1920 and Ronald Arthur 1923.
At least until 1921, the family seemed to move quite frequently between small farming villages in or just west of the Lincolnshire Wolds around Louth. Ernest was generally working as a cowman. Ernest died in the Horncastle district of Lincolnshire in 1928, aged just 44. He was buried at St German’s Church in Ranby. Charles would be just 10 years old at the time and Annie was left with six children aged between 5 and 19.
It is likely that the family were already living at Bleasby Moor in Legsby by the time Ernest died as Tom Ranyard (who is George Ernest Ranyard’s son and so the nephew of Charles William Ranyard) indicates that Ernest was a foreman at Dring’s Farm, Bleasby House, Legsby. Legsby is a small village just south east of Market Rasen. They were certainly there by 1936 when Ernest and Annie’s 13 year old son Ronald died as he is buried in St Thomas’ Church in Legsby. He believes that most of the family were employed in agriculture by the Drings at one time or another. Bleasby Moor was a small hamlet just south of Legsby and several of the houses were owned by the Dring family to house their workers.
In September 1939 Annie was living at Bleasby Moor with Jack and Ida, both still single. Jack was described as a Garthman and Ida was a paid domestic servant. In the same area was George who was now described as a Cowman and married with his two children, though his wife was not present at the time. Cyril (generally called Sid) and his wife Alice were living nearby in Legsby itself.
It may be that Charles had moved away from Legsby by 1937 to work as a Groom at Harrington at the south end of the Wolds for it is possibly he who was summoned for driving with no driving licence; having no silencer on a motorcycle; using an uninsured motorcycle and using an unlicensed motorcycle at Driby in that year. Apparently, his friend, Edward Bellamy, had allowed him to use his motorcycle even though the road fund licence had expired the previous year and he had not yet transferred the insurance from the previous owner. Charles told the policeman who caught him “I am just having a bit of a ride out. My pal lent it to me. I am only learning. I’m going to buy one in the spring”. When Bellamy was asked why the silencer had been removed he said “I thought the bike sounded better without it” – causing laughter in court. They were both fined £2 and disqualified for 12 months.
Certainly by September 1939 neither Charles nor Herbert seem to have been living in Legsby. Herbert married his wife Phyllis Harris in York in summer 1939, though by September she was back living with her parents Septimus and Alice Harris in Lissington, just a mile or so from Bleasby Moor. According to Tom Ranyard, Herbert also saw active service in WW2, so may already have signed up. At this time, Charles was working as a bricklayer in Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire and living in the household of George and Olive Saywell at 37 Cherry Tree Lane. George was also a Bricklayer, just 5 years older than Charles.
Tom Ranyard can just remember meeting Charles when both were visiting Tom’s grandmother (Charles’ mother) Annie Ranyard and her son Jack at Bleasby Moor when Charles was home on leave. He has a distant memory that he might have had a Matchless Motor Bike, suggesting he achieved his earlier ambition of owning a motorcycle.
While Herbert survived the war, Charles sadly died at Overloon in 1944. He is commemorated on the war memorial on the lynchgate of St Thomas’ Church in Legsby.
Annie, and Jack and his wife Betty continued to live together in Legsby until their deaths. Annie died in 1968, aged 84, and is buried at St Thomas’ in Legsby.
