Joe and Charles MILLARD – Charfield
This research and story is thanks to Graham Adams from Woodlands Road, found in archived material.
The MILLARD family of Mill Lane also lost two sons. The elder JOE, a 32-year-old gunner with heavy artillery got cramp when swimming in a river behind the lines on 26 May 1917 and drowned. A keen member of the Tytherington Football team, he had worked at the quarry. His 17-year-old brother CHARLES was wounded and went missing on 18 November 1916 after the long drawn out and bloody Battle of the Somme, whilst serving as Lewis gunner with the 8th Glosters. He was never seen again and officially presumed dead in March 1917. His name is now one of the 73,000 British soldiers from the Somme battles with no known grave, commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
It was not until almost the final day of the Battle that the Somme claimed a Charfield man.
On the night of 17 November 1916, the first snow of the winter had fallen over the Somme battlefield. As part of a Division whose job it was to reach the village of Grandcourt in the valley of the River Ancre below Thiepval, the 8th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment went “over the top” at 6.10 the next morning into swirling sleet which soon turned to rain.
The ground was half frozen and, where it had thawed, soon turned into chalky slime; poor visibility hampered artillery support and prevented aerial reconnaissance. Pte Charles Millard, age 17, was one of a Lewis gun (a light machine gun) team with the Battalion. His unit had two objectives: to reach Grandcourt and dig in, and to mop up any German resistance in shell holes, dug-outs, and trenches.
The 8th Glosters, remarkably in the conditions, reached Grandcourt but were unable to stay there as units on their flank had not advanced sufficiently, leaving them exposed. The mopping-up parties had a hard time suppressing fierce German machine gun fire. Somewhere in the mud and slime of the shell-torn ground, Pte Millard met his death. Initially, he was reported wounded and missing and it was not until March 1917 that his non-appearance 11and lack of reported capture led to the conclusion that he was one of the last to die on the Somme in 1916. No grave was ever found and, if you visit Thiepval, you will find his name amongst the vast columns which record those of over 73,000 who fell in the Battle and similarly disappeared.
Having received confirmation of Charles’s death, Mr and Mrs Thomas Millard were soon to receive the tragic news that another of their eleven children had died in the War. Joseph, age 32, had left his job at Tytherington Quarry to join the 31 Heavy Artillery Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, which was responsible for the large guns on the Western Front. On 26 May 1917, taking time off from duties as battalion cook, he went for a swim in a river near Armentieres. It is believed that, with the onset of cramps, he got into difficulties and drowned. He was buried locally.
Thanks to Alexis Threlfall and Helen Date for the photographs and images.
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