A VERY SCARCE, COMPLETE & EARLY
1914 Star & Bar Trio, Plaque & Scroll.
To:
8854. L/Cpl C. POWELL.
'A' Company 2nd Bn,Northamptonshire Regt.

KILLED-IN-ACTION (German Sniper) 16th January 1915.

[BIOGRAPHY]
Charles Powell was born in Finedon near Wellingborough in 1891 the third of five sons & the brother to one sister of George Powell (Bootmaker) & Rachel Powell. The Powell children in 1901 were: George (Baker & Breadmaker, 17) LILLY (Shop Assistant, 15) William (School, 13) Charles (School, 10) Thomas (School, 6) and Edward (Baby, 3).The family home was shown as 71 Barker Street (or square) Finedon ? ( or could be Rushden) . The family is later recorded at Millers Close, Finedon. By reference to his service number Charles joined the army in late 1908 or early 1909.

"A SPECIAL PERSONAL NOTE ABOUT GEORGE & CHARLES POWELL"
You will notice that George Powell, Charles' older brother was a baker & breadmaker. In an amazing coincidence I already knew he worked at Excelsior Bakery in Havelock Street, Wellingborough because the bakery business belonged to part of my own family from 1825 to 1991. The Powell family were well known to my great uncle William & uncle Fred Sanders who owned the business. Young Charles Powell who's medals we have here regularly assisted his brother George after school & on a Saturday and prior to the Great War was learning to be a baker !!! It's a really strange feeling for me to realise that young Charles would have played in the same flour loft as I did ( there was a dart board up there ) when I was a kid during my 1960's summer holidays with my uncle Fred at the Excelsior bakery in Wellingborough.

[HISTORY]
The 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment were in Alexandria, Egypt when war broke out in August 1914. They returned to England, in October and joined 24th Brigade, 8th Division at Hursley Park near Winchester. They proceeded to France landing at Le Harve on the 5th of November 1914, a much needed reinforcement to the BEF and remained on the Western Front throughout the war.

After the first Christmas of 1914, and in the cold opening days of January 1915, the war had initially settled down into a 'wait & see' game with much planning but with little sign of the huge set piece battles which were to come. The weather had been bad and both sides were awaiting the spring. Looking through the various unit diaries for the period of early January it's clear that the main risk to life in the early days of 1915 was the ever present problem of snipers. Indeed, we've read of at least three instances of men of the 1st & 2nd Northamptonshire regiment being killed by being 'picked off' by German snipers during comparatively inactive period in the trenches. It was very easy in a moments carelessness to produce a target for an enemy rifleman. By the looks of things this was the fate of poor Charlie Powell.





Charles is remembered with eternal honour at GUARDS CEMETERY, WINDY CORNER, CUINCHY

The grave epitaph by his mother is "Remembered With Love"

An excellent & complete grouping to a much collected regiment.












The medals are practically mint with original ribbons & clasp and are accompanied by their original War & Victory medal card box. The scroll is the original and is as normal slightly creased with a couple of small tears & a small, hole in the lower left side. The plaque which comes in an original waxed card cover is VF+ & has been polished by a proud relative many years ago. Probably and with little doubt the grieving mother, Rachel Powell.

£895 Part Exchanges Welcome .