Charles Edward BACON

02 February 1917

ANOTHER HAWES SOLDIER GOES WEST

Another Hawes soldier, in the person of Pte. Charles Edward Bacon, West Yorkshire Regiment, is added to the roll the war is exacting from the Hawes recruits. Pte. Bacon, who succumbed to pneumonia in France last Friday, was amongst the first to join Kitchener's' Army, and was the third of the Hawes married men to join up. He enlisted in December, 1914, but only went to France about a month ago. A few days after landing he was taken ill with pneumonia. His wife was summoned to visit him, and made the journey to France alone three weeks ago. After a few days' stay she left her husband apparently much better. On Saturday last she received the sad news that he had passed away.

Previous to joining the Army, Pte. Bacon was engaged in business at Hawes as a fish dealer. He was an excellent musician; the possessor of a beautiful tenor voice, and was for some time a member of Hawes Church Choir. He was also the solo euphonium player in Hawes Brass Band and a fine performer. He was the son of the late Sergeant Bacon, of Leyburn, and at one time was cricket groundsman at Leyburn. As a cricketer he played both for Leyburn and Middleham, for which clubs he often rendered good service. He leaves a widow and five children (the eldest of whom is not yet eleven years old) to mourn his loss.

18 May 1917

HAWES - THE STRICKEN BRAVE: MEMORIAL SERVICE

A memorial service for all the local men who have fallen in the War since October was held in St. Margaret's Church on Sunday afternoon. There was a large congregation and the service was conducted by the Rev. S.D. Crawford. The soldiers to whose memory honour was paid were:- Corporal S. Moore; Private C.E. Bacon; Private J.W. Horn; Private A. Kirkbride; Private J. Iveson; Private J. Mitton; Private R. Walton; Private J. Fawcett; Private L. Staveley.

The choir and clergy were preceded to the chancel from the choir vestry by one of the choristers, Master Kenneth Wilson, in Boy Scouts' uniform, carrying the Union Jack draped in black. The service opened with the hymn 'Days and Moments,' followed by Psalm xxiii, and the lesson from Rev. xxi, verses 1 - 5. Then was sung the hymn 'Nearer my God to Thee.' Sentences and collects from the Burial Service, with other special collects, were followed by the singing of the 'Nunc Dimittis' and the hymn 'On the Resurrection Morning.'

The Vicar said: "For the second time we meet to mourn the loss of our fellow townsmen in this terrible and sad war. Your presence here is not only to pay honour to their memory, but is a proof of your sympathy with their sorrowing relatives. No words can lighten that sorrow I know, but I pray - and I am sure you all pray - that time, the great healer of all wounds, may do its work, and that in the years to come their sorrow may be lightened by the thought that their dear ones died the noblest of all deaths - that of the soldier who falls in a righteous cause and for King and Country - aye, and more than that, for civilisation and liberty. I have been asked in more houses than one, "Why should all this fighting and bloodshed be going on between professedly Christian countries?" and I think the only answer that can be given is that it has been forced upon the rest of the world by a country which has substituted for the laws of Christianity the laws of the devil. When a nation goes so far as to brush aside treaties hitherto held sacred among the nations as mere scraps of paper, when it breaks not only the laws of humanity, drawn up to alleviate the horrors of war - laws to which itself had given assent, and gives as its only excuse, the laws of necessity, and when it tries to force upon other nations the 'Kultur' which has produced this spirit of ruthlessness and contempt for all that is just and noble and chivalrous, then I say, the danger to civilisation is so great that no Christian country should stand by and take no part in wiping it out. The fact that nearly the whole of the New World, following in the steps of the U.S.A., are either openly at war, or have broken off relations with our enemy, is a strong proof that our cause is just, for it is a condemnation, the greatest condemnation, of their conduct and action. So long as the spirit of militarism, which governs a powerful nation like Germany, lasts, and is allowed to exist so long there will be danger of fresh and repeated wars. We and our Allies are out to put an end to this; we are out to bring about a time when war shall be no more, and peaceful arbitration shall take its place. Is not that worth fighting for? It is a noble object, and those dear lads we mourn to-day, with thousands of others who have made the great sacrifice with them, have not sacrificed their lives in vain, for they have helped to bring about that victory which, God grant, will be the prelude of universal peace."

After the address and whilst Mr. Haverfield played the Dead March, the chorister before mentioned stood at 'Attention' at the chancel steps holding the Union Jack.

The sounding of the 'Last Post' by Mr. J. Blades brought a most impressive service to a close.