Roll of Honour

Lost on the battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable, at the Battle of Jutland, on May 31st, 1916.

Charles William Connon, one of nine children of William and Mary Eliza Connon, was born in West Hartlepool on 28^th January 1893. His father William was born in Kincardinshire Scotland in 1867 and his mother Mary Eliza (nee Pickering), in 1866 in West Hartlepool. They married in West Hartlepool in 1890.

In 1891, William Connon was living in Woodbine Street, South Shields, as a barman, but his new wife was not with him. The 1901 census finds the whole family in Tweed Street, West Hartlepool, with William still listed as a barman, with children Letitia, aged 10, Gertrude, 9 and Charles William, 8, all born in West Hartlepool. The next two children, Albert, 6, and Stanley, 4, were born in South Shields; Mary, 2, was born in Sunderland and baby James in West Hartlepool.

By 1911, the family lived at 27, Albert Street, West Hartlepool, and a further two girls, Norah, 6, and Kathleen, 2, had been born. Also in the house was Thomas Lowery a nephew who was a coal miner from Ryhope.  All nine children had at this point survived. In 1911, aged 16, Charles William Connon was living with his aunt Mary Ann (nee Lowery) in Chester le Street, and working as a Putter in a coal mine. It seems that this extended Connon family moved around County Durham quite a lot.

Charles William Connon joined the Royal Navy and served on the battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable as a Leading Stoker. The ship was shelled by the German battlecruiser Von de Tann on 31^st May, 1916 in the Battle of Jutland and was destroyed when a magazine exploded. Only two of the 1021 crew survived. Charles William’s body was not recovered.
His mother was living at 27 Albert Street, West Hartlepool, at this time.