This is Pte Charles Alleeson of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers(at the time of these entries), born in Dulwich. Two of his ink drawings are shown below. The'burglar' is entitled WHILE DAD IS AWAY FIGHTING. The Lady is saying OH WHERE IS MY BOY TONIGHT? She was later labelled as 'Miss Grace Cantary'. The picture of Pte Alleeson and the information that follows has been supplied by his family after contact made via this site.
Pte Alleeson's mother Laura died shortly after childbirth aged 28. She may have been unmarried. There is no note of a father on his birth certificate but his name is shown as Charlie, surname Stallard. He was taken in by his mother's sister, whose married name was Alleeson. It is believed that he was renamed Laurence after his mother. He became known as Lal, or Larry, or Charlie. Apparently he did not know about his biological mother until much later in life.His Army service was as Private 5945 with the 5th and later the 12th Royal Irish Lancers plus as Private 32434 in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He sent many postcards from various locations including Morval, Guillemont, Doullens, Arras, and Mont des Cats (this card contains a comment "...and this is another where some part of it I have been and hope not to be again". He is known to have been in Holleyn Hall Hospital in Northumberland in December 1918 but it has been said that he had been in Dartford hospital either because he was shot in the foot or fell from a horse. The undated Album entry was made when he was in Gravesend Hospital. Private Charles Alleeson went on to marry twice and have ten children the last of which was born just after his death on 19 June 1960 aged 66. At the time of his first marriage at age 34 in 1931 he was Railway Dining Car Chef. It is said that this included The Flying Scotsman. It appears that for the rest of his life he worked as a labourer.
Several postcards are still held by family members, including this beautiful card from when he must have been serving with the 12th Lancers:-
He was in Ireland at the time of the Sinn Fein rebellion and one postcard sent to his mother includes the following "I am now back in barracks and also going on the next draft. I also got over this Dublin fighting alright. I had a hot time I can assure you I had narrow escapes several of our soldiers got killed......."
Two interesting rhymes - Sapper Brocklehurst is clearly grateful for Nurse Harvey's care in 1917, whilst Pte Dodd's words seem to suggest that he wrote them much later, when the war had ended. No idea what 'Dome' he was referring to.
Click here
to return to page 1. . Front Page
Click here to jump to page 2.
Click here to jump to page 3.....List of Soldiers
Click here to jump to page 5.....Album examples
Click here to jump to page 6.....Roll of Honour