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Pte. Charles William "Roger" Tye
British Army 2nd/3rd Northumbrian Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps
from:Hull, Yorkshire
Charles William Tye was my father, and was known to his friends and relations as Will, although for some reason that I am not clear about his army friends called him Roger. He had joined the TA in Hull in 1911 when he was 18. At the suggestion of his father (a member of the East Riding of Yorkshire TA), who thought it would be better to join a unit that would teach him something more useful than just learning to kill people, he chose the RAMC.
I believe all TA units were mobilized on August 1st 1914 and he was immediately posted to Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. From there he went to Boroughbridge in Yorkshire and then on to Morpeth in Northumberland. He was sent overseas in about 1916 in a hospital ship to join the army units fighting near Salonika in Greece. There was only one day of fighting there after he arrived when Bulgar shelling killed a mule in a nearby artillery(?) camp.
He remained in Greece for the rest of the war and after the armistice was sent on detached duties through Bulgaria and Romania. Throughout his time in Greece and the other countries he was mainly involved in treating cases of malaria and dysentery with very few wartime type injuries occurring. He returned home in mid-1919 after reaching a seaport on the Black Sea, travelling by ship to somewhere in the Adriatic. His memories of this journey included going through the Corinth Canal and then (I think) a train journey through Switzerland to England. He and his colleagues arrived back in Hull during the night and walked home from the station!
He died in 1961 from cancer at the age of 68 after serving in the Air Raid Precautions (later Civil Defence) First Aid Service in Hull during WW2. His luck held, and throughout the war there were no air raids on the nights he was on duty at the First Aid post! You will understand that this is my recollection from some 50 or 60 years ago and there may be errors in the facts listed.
