b. 30/01/1893 Blandford Forum, Dorset. d. 06/02/1950 Romsey, Hampshire.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 22/02/1916 St Peter’s Barracks, Jersey.
Charles E C Bartlett
MC AM
Charles was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment on 5th February 1913. He served throughout World War I and was Mentioned in Despatches. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre (France), and was also awarded the Military Cross in February 1915. He married Marion Eleanor Clarke in 1919 at Christ Church, Mayfair, London. He continued to serve after the end of WWI, in Singapore, Burma, India and Sudan, before he became Commanding Officer of 1 South Staffs in 1938. He served throughout WWII before retiring as Colonel in January 1946.
AM CITATION:
On the 22nd February 1916, at St. Peter’s Barracks. Jersey, one of the men under instruction at a bombing class, of which Lieutenant Bartlett was in charge, was practising with a catapult bomb thrower, and had removed the safety-pin from a bomb, holding back the lever with his finger. In placing the bomb in the sling he dropped it, and, in a fright, ran backwards, colliding with Lieutenant Bartlett, who had started to pick up the bomb. Lieutenant Bartlett, however, succeeded in reaching the bomb in time to throw it over the parapet into the air: where it exploded harmlessly. The bomb was timed to explode five seconds after the lever was released. This Officer had already been awarded the Military Cross.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT MUSEUM, LICHFIELD, STAFFORDSHIRE.
Acknowledgement:
Danielle Crozier – Image of the Bartlett Medal Group at Staffordshire Regiment Museum.