WIGHTMAN, Charles
| Service Number: | 2022 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 24th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Cobram, Victoria, Australia, 1893 |
| Home Town: | Cobram, Moira, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Cobram State School |
| Occupation: | Tailor |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 8 October 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Cobram Barooga RSL War Memorial, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient), Numurkah Town Hall Shire of Numurkah Roll of Honor, Numurkah and District War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 26 Aug 1915: | Involvement Private, 2022, 24th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Anchises embarkation_ship_number: A68 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug 1915: | Embarked Private, 2022, 24th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Anchises, Melbourne |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
2022 Private Charles Wightman 24th Battalion AIF, killed in action 8th October 1917.
Charles was born at Yarroweyah, where his father farmed, and attended Cobram State School. He was a tailor, working and living in Numurkah when he enlisted during June 1915. He was playing senior football for Numurkah during 1914.
By the 12th October 1915, he was serving on Gallipoli with the 24th Battalion. He arrived back in Egypt safely in January 1916 after the general Gallipoli evacuation.
He arrived in France during March 1916 and survived until evacuated to England in early 1917 suffering from bronchitis and debility.
He rejoined the 24th Battalion in France 14 August 1917 and whilst acting as a runner near Zonnebeke in Belgium, witnesses saw him killed by shellfire in an open field on the 8th October 1917. Charles was buried by his mates near Anzac Ridge but his remains were not found after the war and he has his name remembered on the Menin Gate. He had served for almost 2 and half years at Gallipoli and the Western Front.
Charles was the son of Charles and Margaret Wightman, of High Street Cobram.
The following notice appeared in the Cobram Courier shortly after,
“Everyone who knows Private Charlie Wightman expressed sincere sympathy with his mother, brother, and sisters when they heard the sad news of his death in action had been received at Cobram last Saturday, for Charlie was a general favorite and just as popular in Numurkah, from which town he enlisted, as he was in this district, which can proudly claim him a “native”. Just a year after the war started Charlie answered the Call, and for two years and two months he did his duty as a soldier and a man ; his death taking place on 8th October, just exactly two months before the sorrowful information reached his distressed mother and relatives. Private Wightman was a smart, likeable, kindly dispositioned young man who gave promise of being a very useful citizen, and the cutting-off of his career at the early age of 23 years is greatly deplored by numerous friends, who deeply sympathise with Mrs Wightman and family in their grievous loss.”
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