253 Sgt Charles Kenneth Valentine 1/6th Manchester Regiment

403 British Army officers and men lost their lives on this day, one hundred years ago.

5th June 1915. An unspectacular day for many and yet of those 403 names, 203 are recorded on the Helles Memorial on Gallipoli; many of these, men from the Manchester Regiment who lost their lives in an attack on Turkish positions. At a stroke then, we can see that more than half of those who died or who were killed on this day, have no known grave.

253 Sergeant Charles Kenneth Valentine of the 1/6th Manchester Regiment is one of those 203 names. Soldiers Died in The Great war notes that he was born in Moss Side and enlisted at Manchester whilst the entry in the soldiers' effects register records his sister Annie as his sole legatee. She received seven pounds, one shilling and two pence and later a gratuity of five pounds.

Charles was born in 1883 in Manchester.  His birth was registered at Chorlton, Lancashire in the second quarter of that year. The last census on which he would appear was the 1911 census and this shows him living with five siblings at 5 The Polygon, Lower Broughton, Manchester. Charles is recorded as a trained and certificated 27-year-old elementary school teacher for Manchester City Corporation while his 42-year-old brother, William Hunt Valentine, also a certificated teacher, is noted as the head of the household. Other siblings noted are Annie Carrington Valentine, Elizabeth Thompson Valentine, Gertrude Louise Valentine, and George Hamilton Valentine. William Taylforth, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher and boarder brings the total household count up to seven.

Going back to the 1891 census, the first census that Charles appeared on, we see him living with his parents: 47-year-old George (an accountant) and his 48-year-old wife, Letitia J Valentine. There are ten children noted, in age order: Annie (23), William (21), Mary Alice (20), Elizabeth (18), Thomas (18), Gertrude (16), Margaret (12), George Hamilton Wardlow (9), Percy W (9) and Charles Kenneth (9). The striking thing about these siblings is their ages: two aged 18 and three aged 9.  Percy Wardlow Valentine though, was actually born in 1881 as was his brother George.

Charles's medal index card notes incorrectly that he died in July 1915. There are no surviving papers for this man but his regimental number certainly marks him out as an original member of this battalion, a man who would have joined in April 1908 and who almost certainly had seen service in the Volunteer Force prior to this. His date of arrival overseas is the date that the 5th and 6th Battalions of the Manchester Regiment landed on Gallipoli.

Going by the date of his birth registration, Charles would have been 32-years-old when he was killed at Gallipoli.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.