Lieutenant Charles Leonard Parlett HEMING
D Company, 2nd Battalion Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)

Date of birth: 4th April 1897
Date of death: 12th February 1917

Died of wounds aged 19
Buried at St Martin's Churchyard, Canterbury
He was born at 10, Tweedy Road, Bromley, Kent on the 4th of April 1897 the eldest son of Francis Charles Heming, manager of the London County & Westminster Bank, and Edith Eleanor (nee Parlett) later of Lane End, Frensham, Farnham in Surrey, and of 62 Gordon Road, Ealing. He was christened at South Bersted in Sussex on the 30th of May 1897.

He was educated at the Junior King’s School from May 1906 to April 1911 and at the King’s School Canterbury to December 1914. He served as a Private in the Officer Training Corps from April 1911.

On the outbreak of war he was in Germany and arrived home several weeks later. On leaving school he had planned to become a mechanical engineer but instead he applied for entry to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst on the 19th of December 1914 in an application which was supported by the Head Master of the King's School. At a medical examination it was recorded that he was five feet five and a half inches tall and that he weighed 133lbs. He entered Sandhurst on the 26th of December 1914 where he was in H Company. On leaving he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) on the 15th of June 1915. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 3rd of April 1916 and was posted to the 2nd Battalion of his regiment.

He embarked for France on the 7th of September 1916 where he joined his battalion in the field at Bruchamps on the 11th of September.

He wrote a letter from the front which was reproduced in the Canturian in December 1916:-

"I have just returned to the line from a sniping school, which has been rather interesting, and I hope will cause the end of a few more Boches. I got into a town from there; I don't know which one; where I met Chester and Keyser. I met them one after the other in the same tea shop. Some time ago I met Filmer, who has transferred from the R.F.A. to the Trench Mortars. The weather in this part is not of the best; where we have just come from we were nearly up to the waist in soup. I am now looking forward to a good bath and change, when I get back into billets tomorrow for a few days."

In January 1917 the 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment received orders to carry out a raid on an enemy position known as "Triangle Crater" in the Loos sector with orders to find out the Germans units facing them and to assess their numbers. Special training was carried out at Les Brebis, where a mock up of the area which was to be attacked had been constructed. The plan was for two platoons from each of A and D Companies to seize each side of the German position and work their way towards each other, bombing enemy dugouts and causing as much chaos as possible. Charles Heming was to lead one of the groups from D Company, and the raid was to be under the overall command of Captain Frank Hitchcock.

On the 9th of January Charles Heming was sent up in an aeroplane to survey the enemy positions at Triangle Crater and the ground to be attacked in preparation for the raid the following day.

At 4.20pm on the afternoon of the 10th of January, under the cover of a smoke barrage from the artillery, A and D Companies stormed the German positions. The raiding party entered the enemy trenches with hardly a casualty despite one platoon of D Company being held up by uncut wire. A Company took eight prisoners with one, who was standing next to his periscope reading a newspaper when Captain Hitchcock landed on him. The German artillery retaliated but concentrated their fire on the British trenches rather than the area being attacked. Smoke was put down to screen the attackers from machine gun positions at the Double Crassier, which were firing speculatively at the Leinsters. The party withdrew at 5.10pm, under the cover of an artillery barrage and with a bonfire burning behind the British front line acting as a beacon. Casualties were one other rank killed with Charles Heming and nineteen other ranks wounded and two missing. The raid was considered a great success with the award to the party of three Military Crosses and four Military Medals.

His father received the following telegram dated the 14th of January 1917:-

"Regret to inform you that Lieut. C.L.P. Heming was wounded 10th instant. Further reports will be sent as received."

Charles Heming was admitted to the 72nd Field Ambulance with gunshot wounds to his right shoulder, right side and left elbow. He was admitted to 6 Casualty Clearing Station here it was noted that he had wounds to his neck, chest, right arm and to his abdomen wall. On the 18th of January he was admitted to 20 General Hospital at Camires and, on the 26th of January, he was evacuated to England on board the Hospital Ship "Matilda".

He died of pneumonia as a complication of his wounds at the Royal Victoria, British Red Cross Hospital at Netley in Hampshire on the morning of the 12th of February; his father was by his bedside. His body was brought to Canterbury on the 16th of February and was received by a guard of honour provided by the King's School Officer Training Corps. The body then lay in state in the Innocents' Chapel. The following day, the body was borne on a gun carriage to St Martin's Churchyard, preceded by a firing party of cadets from the Officer Training Corps. The pallbearers were soldiers from the nearby barracks and the service was conducted by the Reverend R.G. Hodgson following which three volleys were fired over the grave.

His father received the following telegram dated the 12th of February 1917:-

"The Army Council express their sympathy on hearing of the death of Lieut. C.L.P. Heming Leinster Regiment."

His Commanding Officer wrote: -

“He was a fine lad and had already made his reputation as one of the best of our younger officers. His pluck and character are an example to all of us.”

His Major wrote:-

"He was simply loved by everyone, from the Colonel to his servant. The latter used to follow him round the trenches more like a faithful dog than a servant. "
 

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