Charles Herbert Reynolds

War Service

Charles Herbert Reynolds was Able Seaman D/JX 216578 and died aged 24 on 15th September 1941. Charles was serving with HMS President III which was a land-based establishment in Bristol used to train those allocated for service on the defensively equipped merchant ships but he was lost on the SS Empire Eland. The SS Empire Eland was a British steam merchant ship that was on its way from Liverpool to Tampa when it was hit by a torpedo from U Boat U-94 about 570 miles east-southeast of Cape Farewell. All 37 men on board were lost.
There was an obituary in the Wakefield Express on 7th February 1942:
“PRESUMED KILLED – Mr and Mrs J Reynolds of 6, Roger Lane, Wrenthorpe, have received news from the Admiralty that their son, Acting Able Seaman Charles Herbert Reynolds, reported missing, is now presumed to have been killed on war service. Before joining the Navy, he was an employee of the West Riding Automobile Co. He was also a member of St Anne’s Young Men’s Club and a keen sportsman.”
Charles is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Family Life

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission states that he was the son of John and Eliza Reynolds.
I found the marriage of John Reynolds and Eliza Broadhead at St Anne’s on 21st May 1910.
In the Electoral Roll of 1939 the family lived at 143, Wrenthorpe Road and the voting adults were John, Eliza, Charles and Edna who was Charles’ older sister. According to the 1939 Register John was born on 25th October 1883 and was a builder’s labourer. Eliza had been born on 25th April 1886. Their daughter Edna was born in 1915 and was a textile ring twister. Charles Herbert was born on the 22nd April 1917 and was a bus conductor. In 1923 Amy had been born and she was on the register as a textile worsted spinner while the youngest child Jack, born in 1928, was at school. There are three more closed records.

Plymouth Naval Memorial