Charles Alan YOUNG (1892–1917)
Charles Alan Young (known as Alan) was born in Cardiff in 1892, the only son of Charles Alfred Young (born in South Shields, Northumberland in early 1863) and Maria Burrell Putt, known as May (born in Brixham, Devon near the beginning of 1866).
His parents were married at Portsea in the third quarter of 1888 and had two children:
- Charles Alan Young (born in Cardiff in 1892, registered fourth quarter)
- Margaret Ursula Young (born in St Andrew’s, Dinas Powys, Glamorgan in c.1898).
The 1891 census shows Alan’s parents boarding at 222 Newport Road, Roath, Cardiff. His father, who was a ship store merchant or shipbroker, died at the age of 38 in the second quarter of 1900.
By the time of the 1901 census Alan’s widowed mother, May (34) was living on her own means at 16 Cwt-y-fil Road, Penarth with her two children and a servant. She was still in the same house in 1911; Alan (18) was now a fitter’s apprentice and Margaret (12) was at school. They no longer had a servant.
It must have been in Penarth that Alan’s mother met her second husband, Herbert Field (born in Wallingford in 1855/6, registered first quarter of 1856). At the time of the 1911 census Herbert (a widower of 55) was working as a schoolmaster and living in Penarth with his two children Esther Mary Field (13) and James Charles Burstal Field (7), as well as his Oxfordshire-born niece, who kept house for him. He married Alan’s mother in Cardiff near the beginning of 1912.
In about 1915 Charles’s mother and stepfather, Herbert Field, who had now retired from being a schoolmaster, moved to Old Headington. They lived at Church House, 14 St Andrew’s Road (left), presumably with the children from both marriages.
Alan was probably called up when conscription started in 1916, shortly after his family moved to Church House.
In the First World War Alan Young served as a Second Lieutenant in the “D” Battery of the 256th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. He was killed in action in France at the age of 25 on 14 October 1918.
He was buried in the Ramillies British Cemetery, and is listed on the roll of honour of St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington.
Postscript
Alan’s stepfather and mother
- Herbert Field died at the age of 63 and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 8 February 1919.
- Mrs Maria Burrell Field remained in Church House until 1925.
Alan’s sister
- Margaret Ursula Young married Geoffrey Simpson Field, a solicitor from Reading and possibly a relation of her stepfather, at St Andrew’s Church on 12 June 1923. He served as a Lieutenant Colonel during the Second World War.