Charles Ferdinand D’Hooghe married Louisa Ackroyd in 1876 and produced a very large late Victorian family.
The children were Charles Samuel b 1877, Claude Ackroyd b 1878, Sarah Louise b 1880, Henry Adolphus b 1882, Leonard b 1884, Frederick William b 1886, Herbert b 1888, Albert Stanley b 1890, Norah b 1892, Nellie b 1894, Bernal b 1898 (died 1899) and Bert Harold b 1900.
As far as my research goes so far, six of the brothers would see active service in WWI – Charles, Leonard, Frederick, Herbert, Albert and Stanley. All would miraculously survive the war although many of them were severely wounded and hospitalised.
Charles Samuel was already 37 years old when the war started in 1914. The 1911 Census shows Charles as a 33 year-old Assurance Agent, still single and living at home with his parents and many of his siblings at 12 Prospect Street, Radford, Nottingham.
Unfortunately, Charles’ Service Record has not survived and therefore, it is very difficult to detail his service. However, his Medal Index Card has survived and shows that he served as 5486 Private in the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, and as 381715 Private in the King’s Liverpool Regiment. The regimental Medal Roll tells us that he served with the 1st/5th Battalion of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment and with the 25th Battalion of the King’s Liverpool Regiment.
The 1st/5th King’s Own Royal Lancaster’s was a Territorial Force battalion which in Charles’ time of Service was a battalion within the 55th (West Lancashire) Division. This division fought on the Somme in 1916, at the 3rd Battle of Ypres and at Cambrai in 1917, and faced the German Spring Offensive of March 1918. The 25th King’s Liverpool Regiment was a Home Service (non-fighting) battalion, although it did carry out guard duties in Calais in early 1918.
I can’t say with any certainty when Charles was wounded, but it would have been with the King’s Own Royal Lancaster’s, and I presume he finished his service as a convalescent before being discharged whilst with the 25th King’s Liverpool.
Charles was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal which reveals that he did not serve in a theatre of war before 1st January 1916, and the MIC also shows that Charles received a Silver War Badge for wounds received, which suggests he would have been discharged under King’s Regulation 392 (xvi) ‘No Longer Physically Fit For War Service.’ A surviving WWI Pension record reveals that the date he was discharged was 30th July 1918.
Given his age and lack of service in 1914/15, I would suggest that he was a 1916 conscript as the Military Service Act came into being in January 1916 and saw the call up of all single men between the ages of 18 and 41.
Post-war 1939 records show Charles, still a bachelor and aged 62, lodging with the widowed Annie Parkin and her 16 year-old son, William, at 221 Bobbers Mill Road, Nottingham and that he was still working as a Draper Salesman.
Charles died aged 74 in 1951.
