CHARLES EDWARD CURTIS
Laid to rest at the Field of Honour.
Born: 12th December 1891, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
Baptised on the 9th October 1892, at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Wetherden – family home at Clacton-on-Sea.
Died: 13th May 1919; age: 28; died of Broncho-pneumonia for 2 days and Heart Failure, at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Hampshire.
Residence: 185, Ranelagh Road, Ipswich.
Rank: Canteen Manager – Civilian.
Regiment: Mercantile Marine, H.M.S. ‘St. Vincent.’
Funeral service and burial held on the 19th May.
Grave Reference:
BA.2.91.
Ipswich.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Mrs. E. T. Curtis, of 185, Ranelagh Road, Ipswich & the late W. Curtis.
CENSUS
1901 67, Sirdar Road, Ipswich.
Charles was 9 years old and living with his parents & siblings.
William Curtis, 38, a Railway Guard, born Newmarket, Suffolk.
Emma Tabitha Curtis (nee Southgate), 34, born Wetherden, Suffolk.
Mildred May Curtis, 14, a Factory Hand – Net Work, born Marks Tey, Essex.
William Walter Curtis, 12, born Marks Tey.
John Curtis, 10, born Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
Ernest Victor Curtis, 7, born Clacton-on-Sea.
Lily Francis Curtis, 6, born Clacton-on-Sea.
Ivy Maud Curtis, 4, born Clacton-on-Sea.
Roland Curtis, 2, born Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
Rose Edith Curtis, 1, born Bury St. Edmunds.
1911 The Flying Dutchman Hotel, Oulton Broad, Suffolk.
Charles was 21 years old, a Barman at the hotel for 68-year-old Joseph Clarke Balls, the hotel keeper.
Charles’ father, William Curtis, died on Saturday, 22nd January.
Diss Express – Friday, 28th January 1916 – A TRAIN MISHAP AT TIVETSHALL – The Ipswich Coroner conducted an inquest on Monday afternoon, on the body of William Curtis, aged 52, who died on Saturday morning at Ipswich. Dr. Grant MacMahon and Mr. G.F. Thurston, secretary to the G.E.R. Funds Office, watched the proceedings on behalf of that body, whilst Mr. W. Carter, organising secretary, was present in the interests of the National Union of Railwaymen. Mrs. Ellen Curtis, the widow, said her husband was a guard in the employ of the G.E.R. He met with an injury on the 23rd December last. He came home and said he had had a knock on the head. He continued at work until the 3rd January. At six o’clock on the morning of that day, the witness found him unconscious, and medical aid was summoned. The deceased regained consciousness shortly afterwards. Dr. Robertson was called in and had been attending him since. Her husband died on Saturday morning, and he was conscious up to the last. He referred to the blow on the head on several occasions, which he said he received in the van near Tivetshall Station.
Ernest Curtis, pointsman and signalman at the Upper Goods Yard, Ipswich, said the deceased (his father) told him that he had had a knock on the head in the brake van at Tivetshall Station, on the return journey. The deceased did not say how it happened, and the witness did not notice any signs of injury.
Edwin Henry Brown, of Norwich, said he travelled with the deceased on the goods train on the 23rd December. They left Norwich at 3:20 a.m., and arrived at Tivetshall about five o’clock. The witness there left the deceased in the brake van and was absent about half an hour. The deceased mentioned nothing to him about g received a knock. The witness stated they often received minor injuries when the buffers came together, as the train slowed up, and he had known men to have their arms broken by this jarring. The witness did not notice a severe knock that day. He added in reply to questions that the train stopped six times between Tivetshall and Stowmarket.
George Baker, driver of the train, said on the way to Ipswich, at one station, he could not say which, the deceased came on to the engine and volunteered the statement that he had had a “poke” at Tivethall. He made no further complaint, and seemed all right as far as the witness could see. He did not say how it had happened. The witness had not seen him since that date.
Dr. Robertson deposed to seeing the deceased for the first time on the 3rd January at his home. The deceased told him he had had fits. The witness could not quite make up his mind as to the nature of these fits. The deceased told the witness that he had had a knock on the head, but he could not quite follow his statement. Either he pitched forward, or the door swung in and hit his head. He did not tell the witness anything about the mishap the first day he saw him, but did two or three days after he had lost the use of his left arm, and to a great extent of his left leg; so the witness made more inquiries to try and get to the bottom of the matter. He told the witness that the blow was very severe, as it made his neck quite stiff for some time afterwards. The witness examined him carefully, but had been unable to discover any external injury. He saw the deceased frequently, and he appeared to be improving until the following Saturday, when he had another fit about 11:30 at night. On the following morning, the deceased was paralysed in his left arm and leg. The deceased died on Saturday. The fits were the result of some cerebral irritation, and the loss of power to the arm and leg would be due to pressure. The irritation and loss of power would be consistent with a knock from a van door. The deceased was quite conscious every time the witness saw him. To cause this result, the injury need not have been very severe. The witness was unable to state the cause of death. The thick cap which the deceased was wearing would prevent any abrasion to the skin.
The son, John Curtis, recalled, said his father had never been subject to fits, and he had never seen him in one until the morning of the 3rd January.
The Court was adjourned, for a post-mortem, till Wednesday afternoon at the Town Hall.
At the resumed inquiry on Wednesday, medical evidence was given that the cause of death was a tumour on the brain. A post-mortem showed that there were no marks inside or outside the scalp which might correspond with a blow. The blow received by the deceased on the 23rd December might or might not have accelerated death – it all depended upon the amount of violence received. The jury returned a verdict that “The deceased died from tumour on the brain, but whether death was accelerated by the knock in the goods brake is not clear from the medical evidence.”
Charles is believed to be remembered on St. Michael’s Church War Memorial, Ipswich.
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