Story
Charles Bailey was dangerously wounded during the course of the war. But, through nobody's fault, the telegram sent to inform his father went to the wrong address. Initially, Charles Bailey had joined up with the Dorsetshire Regiment but had 'deserted' then re-enlisted five days later with the Royal Field Artillery, this time under the name of 'Private George Bayley'. Originally, Charles Bailey – one of four brothers who would serve in the Army during conflict – had signed up to fight on 30 August 1914, not long after the start of the war. He was a carter by trade. With the regimental number 10397, he was with the 3rd Battalion of the Dorsets. He was 21 years and one month old when he enlisted and stood 5ft 8.5ins tall. Black-haired Pte Bailey's complexion was sallow (later described as dark) and he had brown eyes. His next of kin were given as both his father Charles and mother Mary, who lived at 1 St John's Road, Heckford Park, Poole. It did not take Pte Bailey long before he got into trouble. On October 19 1914 he was absent from reveille and confined to camp for seven days. Next month he left his fatigue duty without permission and remained absent. This time he was confined to camp for three days. In January 1915 he was absent from tattoo to reveille for nine-and-a-half hours and two months later he was absent from parade again and confined to camp. Within six days, on 19 March he was given Field Punishment No. 2 (manacled for a period of time each day for a set number of days.) He was clearly getting near the end of his tether for by 19 July 1915 he was declared a deserter. Before then, however, on 30 June 1915, Charles had already re-enlisted in Bournemouth, under the name of George Bayley, giving his age as 22 and his address as 41 West Street, Poole. He named his next of kin as his father, 'George Bayley', of the same address and his religion was recorded as 'Wesleyan' (but elsewhere as Church of England). That same year he was posted to France. It took seven or eight months before Gunner Bayley's past caught up with him. In March 1916 it was discovered that Gunner Bayley, 87606, had re-enlisted fraudulently. He was held in detention on 11 March 1916 for a day. At first he was awaiting trial for desertion but was this quickly dispensed with. All his former service was forfeited, however, and deductions made … although it was noted he was £1 in credit at the time he 'deserted'. On 9 April 1918, still serving in France, he suffered gunshot wounds to the right forearm and chest (also recorded elsewhere as right shoulder and forearm) and was taken to a clearing hospital. A telegram was sent the following day to the address where, he had claimed, his father lived. It was to say he had been "dangerously wounded". The initial telegram was refused at the door and marked "not for this address". A letter was sent to the Chief Constable, Poole on May 1 1918, asking the police to help trace his next of kin, who had 'apparently removed'. The following day a reply came from a Sgt Francis Miller to say 'the father of Gunner Bayley now resides at No 1 St John"s Road, Longfleet'. A telegram then sent from the casualty station in France to 1 St John's Road, Heckford Park, reported that there was 'no change' in his condition. Gunner Bayley was sent back to England for treatment, initially at the Albert Hall military hospital in Nottingham, then on to a military hospital at Trent Bridge in the same city. While there, his medical record shows 'his arm was opened up and a large amount of pus evacuated.' After the wound healed he still showed symptoms of internal nerve injury. In July, he was transferred to the Brighton Grove Military Hospital in Newcastle on Tyne. On 21 September he was moved on to a general hospital in Leeds for further treatment on the gunshot wound on his right forearm. (He was also treated there for gonorrhoea and his Army record shows he had previously been treated at a field hospital in France for a venereal disease in 1916.) It appears he remained in hospital in Leeds until 18 February 1919 when it was recorded that 'Shell wounds healed, still incomplete extension of last three fingers.' He was discharged as permanently unfit. (His medical record also states that his trade was 'dock labourer and his previous employer was J. Budden, of Church Street, Poole.) His Army Pension record includes a statement he made saying he was wounded at what looks like 'Acq'. He stated that: 'Chest gives no trouble at present only when I get a cold on the chest and my right hand is a bit bad for use at my work (cannot extend the last three fingers.' Charles Bailey (Gunner Bayley) had served with the RFA for more than four and a half years and gave his address as 'Coolhurst' which was on Sandbanks Road, Lilliput. His degree of disability as a result of his wounds was marked as 30 per cent and he was issued with a pension of 8s3d from 19 February 1919, to be reviewed after 26 weeks. Under the name George Bayley, he was awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1915 Star. Charles Bailey was born in Poole in early 1893. His father was from Spetisbury and his mother, Mary, from Liverpool. The couple would have 13 children, though two died in infancy. In 1901, the Baileys were living at 15 West Quay Road and Charles senior was working as a wood sawyer. By 1911, the Baileys (listed in Ancestry under 'Barley') were living at 60 Denmark Road, Poole. By now, Charles' father, as well as his eldest brother, Albert, 25, was working as a general carrier. Charles was a porter at a firm of cabinet makers and two of his younger brothers, Percy and Edgar, were errand boys. Of his surviving siblings, one brother and three sisters were older than him and five brothers and one sister were younger. During the war, the Poole and East Dorset Herald, of 23 August 1917, reported that Mr and Mrs Bailey, of Longfleet, had four sons serving in the Army including a Gunner C. Bailey, serving in the RFA. (Bombardier P. T. Bailey was in the RFA, Pte A. Bailey, with the Dorsets in France and Pte E./ Bailey with the Dorsets in Mesopotamia.) Charles Bailey was listed on the Absent Voters List – the register of men serving abroad but eligible to vote in the 1918 general election – as living at 1 St John's Road, Longfleet. A separate entry on the Absent Voters register also lists Albert (of the Gloucesters), Charles (RFA and Edgar (Dorsets) as registered electors at the same address. Note: At the time of the 1939 Register of England Wales, a Charles Bailey was living with his wife, Cicily Maude (nee Richards) at a house named Valletta in Foxholes Road, Oakdale. (This couple had married in Branksome in 1926.) Was this the same Charles Bailey? The death of a Charles Bailey, who was born around 1894, was registered in Poole in the first quarter of 1958; he was 64. * Please contact us if you wish to suggest an amendment or have additional information.