CWGC Headstone

Medal Index Card

Newcastle Journal Tues. 15/02/1916

Newastle Journal Sat. 12/02/1916

Charles Gordon Sharp, was born on the 2nd May 1885, at 1 Hollinghill Terrace, Riding Mill, near Hexham, the youngest son of Robert Sharp. [born 1849, Sunderland], Shipowner, and his wife Mary, [born 1847, from Wiltshire], daughter of Edmund Ride. They had married 1st June 1875 at Sherston Magna, Wiltshire.

They had five children, Hilda, Grace, Robert, Brian and Charles. They employed 4 servants.

In 1911, they were residing at Kingmead, Riding Mill.

Charles was educated at Aysgarth School, then from 1899, two years at Charterhouse College [in house L], then the Durham School of Science [Armstrong College] Charles studied Chemistry, Metallurgy, Mining, Surveying, Engineering and Electrical Engineering. He gained a B.Sc. and became a Mining Engineer.

At the outbreak of war he was doing survey and other work for the "Union Minere du Haut Katanga" in the Belgian Congo.

"The Union Minière du Haut-Katanga ("Mining Union of Upper Katanga"), often abbreviated to UMHK, was a Belgian mining company, once operating in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly the Congo Free State (1885-1908) and Belgian Congo (1908-1960).It was created on October 28, 1906, as a result of a merger of a company created by Léopold II and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd. (a British company created by Robert Williams, which started prospecting for minerals in 1899, and was granted mining concessions in 1900), in order to exploit the mineral wealth of Katanga. It was owned jointly by the Comité spécial du Katanga, a joint venture company controlled by the Belgian Congo government, the Société Générale de Belgique, Belgium's largest holding company (which controlled 70% of the Congolese economy) and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd. Exercising preponderant influence over the Comité spécial, the Société Générale effectively controlled the Union Minière from its inception to 1960.[1] Some of the remains of the UMHK form part of the present day company Umicore."

He joined the Anglo-Belgian Corps which was formed there, and in November 1914, he gave up his work in order to come home and enlist.

Charles trained with the Inns of Court O.T.C., as a private and was gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant on the 27th March 1915 in the 1/4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers.

He died from his wounds on the 5th February 1916.

In his will dated 10th May 1916, he left an amount of £3891 11s 9d. to his mother, Mary Sharp, Widow.

De Ruvigny Roll of Honour

Charles Gordon Sharp is remembered in Riding Mill on R11.01, R11.02 and R11.03

1/4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers.
Armstrong College
The CWGC entry for 2nd Lieutenant Sharp