SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Private CHARLES THORNTON.

18/1306 18th Bn, Durham Light Infantry.

who died, aged 21, on the 1st of July 1916.

Son of John William and Sarah Elizabeth Thornton, of 17 Yeoman St, Skelton-in-Cleveland, N Yorks.


Serre Road Cemetery No 1.
11km North of Albert.

At the census of 1901, Charles, aged 6, was living at 22 Yeoman St and had been born in Skelton.
His father, who worked in the Ironstone mines, came from Pickering N Yorks and his mother from Staithes N Yorks.
He had a younger brother, Harry 2 and two sisters, Nellie 4 and Alice 2.

The 18th (Service) Battalion (1st County) Durham Light Infantry was formed in September 1914.
In May 1915 it was attached to 93rd Brigade, 31st Division and in March 1916 it moved to France and proceeded to the Western Front.
The Battle of the Somme began with a heavy bombardment of the German lines in the last days of June 1916.
Charles seems to have been killed on the first day of the troops going over the top in the Battle of Albert.
In June 1916, the road out of Mailly-Maillet to Serre and Puisieux entered No Man's Land about 1,300 metres south-west of Serre.
On 1 July 1916, the 31st and 4th Divisions attacked north and south of this road and although parties of the 31st Division reached Serre, the attack failed.
In the spring of 1917, the battlefields of the Somme and Ancre were cleared by V Corps and a number of new cemeteries were made, three of which are now named from the Serre Road.
Serre Road Cemetery No 1 was begun in May 1917 when Plot I, Rows A to G, were filled, but it was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when further graves were brought in from the battlefields.