Remembering Charles Ussher Kilner

It is with great grief that I wish to tell you your son has died of wounds received in the recent attack. Our company was ordered to take up a position on the left flank of a brigade which was taking a village a mile to our front. We know the Bulgars were entrenched there. It was successfully carried out and the trenches taken and held. Your son was hit in the charge gallantly leading his men. I saw him at once and had him taken back. He was hit in the side but was not in great pain. We had great hopes of his recovery but last Saturday he had a relapse and died on Sunday morning. We buried him in a small cemetery where other are laid who in like manner have given their lives for their Country

Letter from Kilner’s company commander to his father, 8 October 1916

I first came across Second Lieutenant Charles Ussher Kilner of 1/Suffolk on a visit to the excellent Suffolk Regiment Museum in Bury St Edmunds. This is a great example of a traditional regimental museum with glass cases full of interesting “stuff”. 1/Suffolk was with the BSF in 28th Division for the duration of the campaign. I could only find one thing on display directly related to the campaign in Macedonia and it is this interesting little memorial to 2/Lt Kilner, comprising two of his spoons mounted on a wooden plinth with an engraved silver plaque.

Photos by Robin Braysher, July 2023.

Born in 1883, Charles qualified as an architect before enlisting in 28/London Regiment (Artists’ Rifles). Commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment, he served on the Western Front and with the BSF in Macedonia.

In late September 1916, to prevent Bulgarian troops being moved westwards to oppose Franco-Serbian attempts to take Monastir, XVI Corps in the Struma valley was ordered to prepare an offensive in the direction of Seres. General Briggs decided to begin his operations by capturing and holding the villages of Karajaköi Bala and Karajaköi Zir. This ‘Action of the Karajaköis’ and the subsequent capture of Yeniköi took place between 30 September and 4 October 1916. During the attack on Yeniköi 1/Suffolk – 28th Division’s right-hand battalion – was ordered to capture trenches slightly to the north of the Salonika-Seres road and then link up with 30th Brigade (10th Division). The attack was ultimately successful, although not without fierce Bulgarian counter-attacks and artillery barrages and, in the confusion, the bizarre sight of both sides retiring simultaneously. The BSF is reckoned to have suffered 1248 casualties of which, 189 were killed, mainly in 27th and 10th Divisions. Troops of 28th Division – including 1/Suffolk – had been heavily shelled on the Seres road and suffered 111 casualties, including 2/Lt Kilner (Official History Vol. 1 pp172-184). The Regimental History has this to say:

Thus ended what must have been one of the most spectacular battles of the war. Those who had the good fortune to be spectators in the hills in rear of our position had the whole battle-plain spread out like a panorama in front of them. The enemy sustained about five thousand casualties; those of the battalion amounted to no more than eighty, including some half-dozen officers. Of these 2nd Lieut. J. D. Wiles was killed … 2nd Lieuts. N. de H. Hall and C. U. Kilner died of their wounds on the 7th and 8th respectively.

Murphy, Lt-Col. C. C. R. (1928), ‘The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927’; London: Hutchinson & Co. (reprinted by Naval & Military Press)

Charles Ussher Kilner lies in the CWGC Struma Cemetery with 27 comrades from 1/Suffolk, of whom half died on, or as a result of the action, on 4 October 1916.

You can find out more at:

• ‘A street Near You‘
• ‘Lives of the FWW‘
• CWGC Casualty Details – Charles Usher Kilner