HOLDEN Charles Henry

1911 Census
Kington, Flyford Flavel
George Bristow Laight, head, age 70
Emily Laight, wife, age 57
Charles Holden, lodger, age 18, Cowman, born Worcestershire
Thomas Hopkins, lodger, age 70

The following family history has been provided by family descendant Ray Holden:
I have traced the Holden family back as far as the middle 1700’s at Nether Thurvaston, Derbyshire where William Thomas Holden farmed Marsh Farm with his wife Patience, he was my great x 3 grandfather. His son Thomas William took over the farm when his father died and in turn his son also named Thomas William Holden kept Marsh Farm. He had two siblings, William and Mary, William married Mary Fowke and moved into Worcestershire and Mary married a church minister and remained locally. William and Mary had two children when they moved into Worcestershire, residing at Chadwick Manor near Rubery where they lived with his uncle, William Allesbrooke. His daughter Fanny Allesbrooke later became the mother of Sir John Allesbrooke-Simon a famous Liberal Politician and barrister. Later William Holden took his family to the Hop Pole Inn on the outskirts of Bromsgrove to become an innkeeper. It was whilst he was there that his brother Thomas died young, all his lands and stock were sold by auction and the money divided between William his brother and Mary his sister. William, my great grandfather, had become a very rich man. This prompted him to return to farming at Finstall and he also set himself up with steam traction engines and threshers and contracted them out to other farmers. He later moved to Huddington Hill Farm taking his engines with him. His son Harrington married Laura Elizabeth Farmer a farmer’s daughter and they were my grandparents. They first farmed at Dunhampstead and then moved to Cockshute Farm, Dormston. Laura and Harrington had a very traumatic life, she lost her father when she was very young, four little daughters in infancy and her oldest son Walter James in an accident with a pitchfork in the barn at Cockshute whilst he was working with his brothers Charlie and my dad, Albert. Laura lost her husband when he was forty and two weeks after the burial she buried another little girl. Laura was pregnant at the time of all this tragedy.

When Harrington died, as was the custom in those days, the family was split up between the mothers brothers and Albert and his sister Florence went to live with uncle Walter at Hill Farm, Langley near Stratford on Avon. Both seem to have been very happy there. Florence married and remained there for the rest of her life.

In 1918 Laura lost another two sons at the battle of Passchendaele, Flanders, where they died within three days of each other, disappearing from the face of the earth during a German bombardment. Albert, my father, became a Kitchener Volunteer in 1914 at the age of 22 and fought throughout the war with the 10th battalion Warwickshire regiment as a mounted machine gunner. He was then transferred to the Machine Gun Corps but remained with the Warwicks. He returned unscathed in 1919.

Returning from the war my father met and married Emily Cross who came from Southampton. They married at Langley and lived with Florence and her husband. Both women became pregnant at the same time and Laura took Emily and Albert back to Cockshute with her where they lived in a cottage opposite Dormston Church. They later moved to Martin Hussingtree and then to Woodfield Farm, Northampton Lane, Ombersley where another five children joined the family.

John Brassington the son of Samuel Brassington a neighbouring farmer from Derbyshire married Laura’s younger sister Eve and they also farmed in the area. The three Brassington brothers mentioned on the Roll Of Honour at Kington Church were their children, cousins of Charlie and Thomas Holden who died in the war. Laura my grandmother, often visited us at Woodfield farm, after all the hardship she went through I never once saw her without a smile on her face. She died in the winter of 1950 and is buried at Bransford Road, Worcester.

Two weeks after the start of WW2 we left Ombersley to live in Kidderminster and in 1942 at the age of eighteen my brother Tom volunteered for the Royal Navy even though his work made him exempt from military service. He died on 21st August 1944 whilst escorting a convoy to Russia www.hmskite.com In 1945 another older brother Harrington was called up and served in the Royal Navy on national service. I volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1950 when I was seventeen served against terrorists in Cyprus and the Suez canal Zone and also took part in the invasion of Suez in 1956. Tom is commemorated on the Kidderminster War Memorial, a memorial in St. George’s church Kidderminster and also on the HMS Kite memorial in the public gardens at Braintree.

I visited Kington Church some years ago and found my grandfather Harrington’s grave but no trace of Walter James or the five little girls. The grave and the surrounding ground was un-mounded and had sunken below the rest of the site, were the children buried here with their father? The lettering on the stone was minimal suggesting that funds were restricted, obviously placed there by Laura.

Charles Holden has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Ploegsteert Memorial.