Charles Stanley Pinnock
The story of Charles Stanley Pinnock is difficult to unravel and appears to contain many inconsistencies. His link to Welwyn however seems to come through his marriage to a local girl, Alice Ethel Hipgrave.
His name appears on the memorial as Pte. C Pinnock and the CWGC database lists one likely candidate, Charles Stanley Pinnock.
In February 1910 Marriage Banns were called in St. Mary’s Church between Charles Stanley Pinnock and Alice Ethel Hipgrave. Both were given as ‘of this parish’. However it seems the marriage did not take place until the last quarter of 1910, when it was registered.
Charles’s military record shows him as being born in Norwich and resident in Welwyn. He enlisted in Cape Colony (South Africa), where indeed the
3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment served in the early years of the 20th century. The Army Register of Soldier’s Effects gives the name of this man’s widow as Alice Ethel.
In the 1911 Census Charles Stanley is with the 3rd Battalion at Dover Castle, his age is given as 21, which contradicts other records, but this may of course be because he enlisted underage. Despite his marriage in 1910 he is stated to be single.
In the same year Alice is listed as being a boarder at ‘The Chequers’ in Church Street. She states she is married and a Soldier’s Wife. To add further confusion also listed are her two children, Doris Hipgrave, aged 3, born in London and Stanley Charles Hipgrave, aged 6 months and born in Welwyn. Stanley’s baptism record gives as his parent(s) - ‘Ethel Hipgave, afterwards Pinnock’. From his christian names it is seems likely that this second child was the son of Charles Stanley Pinnock.
Charles Stanley Pinnock and his family seem at some time to have left England for South Africa, where he enlisted and returned, presumably with the 3rd Battalion in 1908/9. Apart from Charles the family remained in South Africa.
Charles was lost in the earliest stages of the war. As a professional soldier he left for France immediately upon the outbreak of war, in August 1914.
He fought in the retreat from Mons and the first fighting at Ypres. He was killed in action during heavy fighting on the 24th October 1914.
Charles had a brother, Edwin Victor who served with
The South African Mounted Rifles and died of wounds received
fighting in Tanzania, then German East Africa.
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