Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Pte Charles Frederick LEGGATT 16th Bn (Chatsworth Rifles) Died 5/11/17, 2 days after his 37th Birthday.

John Cotterill. "The Chatsworth Rifles (117 Bde of 39 Div) were not in the line at the time of LEGGATT'S death. They were relieved on 24 Oct 17 on Tower Hamlets Ridge and moved out of the line to Little Kemmel Camp and then Godazonne Camp. From 24 Oct to 7 Nov they provided working parties until moving into the Polderhoek Reserve Line on 7 Nov. During the period of trench duty that ended on 24 Oct the Bn had suffered 12 KIA and 45 WIA, of whom LEGGATT may have been one. He is buried in Larch Wood CWGC Cemetery, which is a concentration cemetery to which temporary burials from a wide area SE of Ypres were moved after the war."

De Ruvigny's "LEGGATT, CHARLES FREDERICK, Private No. 72504, The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt.), s. of the late Charles Leggatt, by his wife, Ann, dau. of George Snudden; b. Ivor Heath, co. Bucks, 3 Nov 1880; educ. St. Mark's Boys' School, Hanwell; was a violin-bow maker; enlisted in the Kite Balloon Section of the Royal Flying Corps in April, 1916; transferred tot he Sherwood Foresters in Aug. 1917; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from July, and died at No. 132 Field Ambulance 5 Nov. 1917, from wounds received in action at Ypres the same day. Buried in the Larch Wood, south-east of Ypres. He m. at Broughty Ferry, 17 Aug. 1909, Mary (45, Grove Avenue, Hanwell, co. Middlesex), dau. of James Steward, and had a son, Robert Steward, b. 2. Sept. 1913."

Masonic :

Listed as a Musical Instrument Maker resident at Hanwell when initiated into Sunbury Lodge No. 1733 in 1909. His war service is recorded ended by "Killed in Action Nov/17"

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley