Charles White

Charles and his older brother Thomas, who is also commemorated on the memorial in SS Simon & Jude, Rainworth, have been identified as siblings from a WW1 Pension Ledgers card on which both their names appear. According to this record, their parents were Elizabeth White and Henry White. Elizabeth appears to have been the first named next of kin; her address was given on the Pension Ledger as 17 Rainworth Cottages, Rainworth near Mansfield, Notts. However, her name and address was deleted and replaced by that of Henry White, Vicarage Yard, Blidworth, Notts. (Thomas is also commemorated on the Blidworth war memorial on Main Street/Lambley Lane.) Charles' CWGC record names only his father: 'Son of Mr H White of 17 White City Rainworth Mansfield' while Thomas' record gives only the name of his mother: 'Son of Elizabeth White of 17 2nd Avenue Rainworth Mansfield' while According to military records, Charles was born in Tadworth, Surrey, and Thomas in Barnsley, Yorkshire, and and this is confirmed on the 1901 and 1911 Census. From information on the census records, Charles was born in about 1898 and Thomas in about 1894. In 1901 Elizabeth White (44) b. Halstead Essex, married, was a lodger in the home of Samuel Stride, a horse keeper, at Railway Huts, Tadworth, Banstead, Epsom, Surrey. With her were her sons Thomas (7) and Charles (3). Elizabeth completed the 1911 Census as head of household. She was widowed and living at 29 College Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, with her sons Thomas (18), a labourer for a timber manufacturer, and Charles (13). Also in the household was a lodger, James Langley (35 b. Paddington) a contractor's labourer. It is likely that both Charles and Thomas moved to Nottinghamshire with their mother as they both enlisted in Mansfield. No records of the registration of the boys' births, their parents' marriage or their parents' deaths have yet been traced.

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