Lieutenant Charles Wilfred KIDSON
5th (Extra Reserve) Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers attached to the 2nd Battalion

Date of birth: 16th January 1894
Date of death: 17th October 1918

Killed in action aged 24
Buried at Highland Cemetery at Le Cateau Plot IX Row A Grave 2
He was born at Upper Norwood on the 16th of January 1894 the second son of the Reverend Joseph Charles Eyre Kidson MA (Cantab), Vicar of Holy Trinity, and Annie Marian (nee Hinnell) of Holy Trinity Vicarage, Sittingbourne in Kent. He was christened by his father at All Saints Church, Norwood on the 28th of March 1894.

He was educated at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1907 to July 1913 where he was granted a Junior Scholarship in December 1907. In July 1910 he earned a Senior Scholarship, was appointed as a monitor in September 1911 and was appointed as Captain of School in September 1912. He was a member of the Fives Pair in 1912 and 1913 being Captain in 1913. He was editor of the Cantuarian from September 1911 and served on the committee of the Harvey Society in the same year. From September 1912 he was a member of the Sports Committee and was elected as President of the Debating Society on the 24th of September 1912. He was also a member of the Officer Training Corps attaining the rank of Sergeant in September 1912 and the rank of Officer Cadet in January 1913, achieving Certificate A in the same year. He was awarded his 1st XI Cricket Colours in 1913. In August 1913 he earned an Open Classical Scholarship to Queens’ College Cambridge where he served as a Private in the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps until August 1914.

Following the outbreak of war he enlisted at Maidstone as Private 1705 in the 18th (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (1st Public Schools), University and Public Schools Corps on the 15th of September 1914. At a medical examination, which was held on the same day, it was recorded that he was six feet and half an inch tall, that he weighed 151lbs and that he had a sallow complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. He was posted for training to Woodcote Camp at Epsom. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 8th of December 1914 and to Corporal on the 27th of January 1915.

On the 30th of April 1915 he reverted to the rank of Private at his own request and he applied for a commission in the 5th (Extra Reserve) Battalion Dublin Fusiliers (Special Reserve of Officers) on the 4th of May 1915 . He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the 26th of May 1915 and joined them at Glengorse Camp, Milton Bridge in Midlothian. He was posted to France where he was attached to the 1st Battalion of his regiment, joining them in the field at Corbie on the 31st of October 1916.

In early 1917 he wrote a letter to the school which was printed in the Cantuarian:-

"....I have started dropping across O.K.S. The first I met was Simms, who is now with the "Archies", somewhere quite close to where we were at the time. He hailed me from afar and invited me down to his mess, where I found Wood installed as O.C. yet his affection for the place was absolutely phenomenal. Wood and I had a very pleasant dinner together; we played bridge afterwards, an old Marine and I v Wood and an Anzac and we defeated them to the tune of 2 francs 50! Yesterday morning, having arrived here in rest billets the day before who should I run across but E.K. Barber and with him I.R. Madge both in the Heavies; Barber gave me news of his brother, P.S., who is adjutant of his battalion, and is in the line somewhere near here. He also said he had seen visions of Ryan in a motor car, bespattered with red tabs...."

On the 19th of April 1917 the 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers was holding the front line at Monchy where they had relieved a battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers the previous day. The battalion was subjected to heavy shelling throughout the day during which time Charles Kidson and six other ranks were wounded.

He was evacuated to the rear and was admitted to No. 14 General Hospital at Boulogne for treatment before boarding the Hospital Ship "Princess Elizabeth" at Boulogne on the 22nd of April and disembarking at Dover later the same day. He was taken to C Block, No. 1 War Hospital at Reading where the little finger of his left hand was amputated to the knuckle during an operation on the 8th of May. As he was left handed this caused him much inconvenience.

On the 19th of July 1917 he reported to the 5th Battalion at the Curragh. He attended a final Medical Board there on the 27th of July where he was declared fit and ordered to rejoin his unit. On his return to France he was attached to the 2nd Battalion of his regiment and was promoted to Lieutenant in November 1917.

By October 1918 the Germans were falling back in a fighting retreat with the Allied armies in hot pursuit and the fighting being across open country for the first time in nearly four years. On the 16th of October 1918 the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers relieved the 2nd Battalion Munster Fusiliers on the River Selle, to the south of Benin, in preparation for their leading of an assault across the river the next morning. At 5.20am on the morning of 17th October 1918 the British artillery opened fire in a supporting barrage before the battalion advanced across the river on the remains of a bridge in thick fog. The battalion came under heavy machine gun fire and Charles Kidson was killed by a bullet in the head while rushing a machine gun nest when only five yards from his objective.

His father received the following telegram dated the 26th of October 1918: -

"Deeply regret inform you Lieut. C.W. Kidson Dublin Fusiliers was killed in action seventeenth October. The Army Council express sympathy."

He was buried some five hundred yards to the east of Benin, to the south of Le Cateau but his body was exhumed and reburied in its present location in 1920.

A brother officer wrote that he went to his death:- "In the highest possible spirits."

His Commanding Officer Wrote:-

“He was a splendid officer, absolutely fearless; his men loved him, he always took a keen interest in their welfare.”

His Captain...”He was invaluable to me and volunteered for everything”

A Chaplain wrote to his father: -

“I found that in your son I had met one of the most God fearing, noble and sweet characters that I shall ever meet in this world...his character and life will ever be an inspiration and a help to me”.

He is commemorated on the war memorials at the Sittingbourne and at Queen’s College Cambridge. He is also remembered on the lectern at the Holy Trinity Church in Sittingbourne where his father was Rector. It is inscribed as follows:- “This Lectern was presented to Holy Trinity Church to the honour of God in memory of Charles Wilfred Kidson Lieut. RDF who was killed in France Oct 17 1918. A faithful soldier of the cross and of his country.”
 

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