172389 Pte. Charles Norman Allen, was born on May 25th, 1893, in Buffalo, New York, USA.
A resident of Kings Street East in Toronto at the time of signing on, Charles attested in to the 83rd (Queen's Own Rifles) Battalion on December 6th, 1915.
The 83rd Battalion supplied 241 men to the 4th CMR in June and July of 1916, to build up the 4th CMR after their huge losses on June 2nd, 1916, in the "Battle for Mount Sorrel".
With the 4th CMR back in the front line at Bouzincourt [north-west of Albert, France] on September 20th, 1916, Charles was subsequently wounded whilst holding the line on the 23rd. Being returned to the UK for hospital treatment in Cardiff, Wales, the event clearly moved Charles, as he wrote a poem about the experience, which was subsequently written up in an autograph book belonging to his nurse, Ethel Paskell:
It ain't a blooming clipper
An' its decks not blooming large
It ain't a turbined ripper
Well, in fact it's just a barge
But tho' I'm thin and whitey
An' I try to walk in vain,
I am 'appy, Lordamighty
In my little flannel nighty
For I'm floating 'ome to Blighty
Down the glorious River Seine.
They are watching in the slushy
Squelchy trenches facin' Loos,
While I'm propped nice and cushy
In my first saloon caboose.
Up the line lads are cheering
I shall ne'er join them again.
Up the line the shrapnel tearing
Up the line the Sergeant's swearing
But I'm floating out of hearing
Down the glorious River Seine.
'Twill be precious hard to stick it
When I get me civvy's kit
An' they 'ands me out my ticket
As a "medical unfit"
When I'm landed safe at Dover
An' they put me in a train,
There'll be solace for a rover
Though me fighting days is over,
I was ferried 'ome in clover
Down the glorious River Seine.
Whilst Charles' service history from this point is not known, he was finally struck off 4th CMR strength early in February 1918.
Credit and many thanks go to Terry House for providing a scan and transcript of Charles' poem, gleaned from Nurse Ethel Paskell's autograph book.
Ethel, Terry House's relative, worked at both the King Edward VII Hospital and the Sanitorium, both in Cardiff. The autograph book holds many and varied inscriptions, including an entry from a French soldier.