Charlotte Fullman

"Canada's War Mother"

Charlotte Susan Fullman was born on 27 September 1861, at Ordnance Place, Chatham. She was the second wife of widower Frederick Louis Wood, and the natural mother of Alfred, Ellen, Frederick, John, Harry, Herbert, Percy and Charles Wood. Upon marrying the widowed Frederick, she became mother to the five sons of his first marriage, the oldest of whom was only seven years old. Charlotte - a twin - was the third of seven children born to Stephen and Frances Fullman, natives of the Medway Valley villages of West Farleigh and East Malling, respectively. Stephen Fullman was a Royal Navy veteran and Greenwich pensioner, whose sons attended the famous Greenwich Hospital School on the south bank of the Thames. A relative recalls that the Fullman family "were not very wealthy, but they were educated".

Photo, left: Charlotte Fullman (from The Winnipeg Free Press).

Ordnance Place, Chatham

Ordnance Place is this elegant row of Georgian houses, on Ordnance Terrace, Chatham. Charlotte Fullman was born here in September 1861. The white plaque on the wall of the second house from the left identifies the home of the young Charles Dickens, who lived there 1817-21 while his father (like Charlotte's) was employed in Chatham by the Royal Navy.

Charlotte grew up in the Medway towns, and took her first job in Gillingham, when she became a domestic servant to the family of Henry Giles, foreman of the Pier Road gas works. By 1887, Charlotte had returned to her native Chatham. She lived at 19 Chatham Hill, and earned her living as a laundress. It was here that she would have first made the acquaintance of her future husband, Frederick Wood. In 1887, Frederick was living across the road from Charlotte, at 22 Chatham Hill, with his wife Elizabeth and their five small sons, Richard, Louis, Joe, Bill and Arthur. The Wood family moved to Greenwich, on the south bank of the Thames, by the spring of 1888. Shortly after, Elizabeth died suddenly from complications arising from a miscarriage, leaving Fred to bring up his five young sons alone. Over the following months, Fred renewed his acquaintance with Charlotte Fullman, and they were married at Maze Hill Congregationalist Chapel in Greenwich, on 21 October 1888. Charlotte and Fred moved to 87, Pelton Road, Greenwich, with their young sons; the Woods' only daughter, Ellen, was born in Greenwich on 8 August 1889. Soon after Ellen's birth, the family moved back to Chatham, where they rented an end-terrace house at 1, Seymour Road.

Above - Chatham Hill today. Charlotte's house at No.19 is no longer there, but would have stood on the right hand side of the road, approximately where the telegraph stands in this photo. Right - No.1 Seymour Road is the end house in this terrace. When Charlotte and Fred lived there, the whitewashed house next door (No.3) was occupied by Fred's brother, William Wood; his mother, Sarah Wood; his sisters, Lelia Wood and Sarah Jermyn; and his grandmother, Maria Barnham.

Throughout the 1890's, the Woods were constantly on the move, frequently relocating within the county as Frederick sought work to feed his growing family. The oldest son, Richard, died in 1900, while serving with the British Army in South Africa, but by the time their youngest son was born in 1901, Frederick and Charlotte still had twelve children to support: Lou, Joe, Bill, Arthur, Alf, Ellen, Fred, John, Burt, Harry, Percy and Charlie. In 1905, the Wood family took the opportunity to build a better life for themselves, by emigrating to Canada for a Dominion Land Grant. The British government's Dominion Lands Policy granted 160 acres of land to settlers who were willing to relocate from Britain to cultivate virgin land in the Crown Dominions. If, after living on their allocated land for a minimum of three years, the settlers could show that they had cleared, farmed and improved it, they gained title to the land. Charlotte and Frederick applied for a land grant in Canada, and were assigned 160 acres near the the town of Gunn, northwest of Edmonton, Alberta. By 1905, the oldest Wood children were settled in England (Ellen at least was already married), and they chose to stay, but Charlotte and Frederick left for Canada with at least four of their youngest sons - John, Burt, Percy and Charlie. The Woods settled in Gunn and cleared a ranch on their new land. When war broke out in 1914, Charlotte's sons in Britain were immediately affected. The oldest four - Louis, Joseph, William and Arthur - had probably already seen service in the Royal Navy, and were immediately called up for wartime service. The three youngest "British" Wood sons, Alf, Fred and Harry, soon followed their brothers into the military. Alf and Fred went into the rapidly-expanding wartime British Army, Harry probably followed his oldest brothers into the Navy. In Canada, John and Burt were also old enough for military service, and volunteered for the newly-formed Canadian Expeditionary Force. The two youngest sons, Percy and Charles, were too young to serve in the military (they were aged fifteen and thirteen, respectively, when war broke out), but enlisted anyway, either side of Christmas, 1915. War struck home early in the Wood family, when the oldest surviving son, Louis, was lost at sea less than two months after war broke out. Over the four years that followed, Charlotte and Frederick suffered the loss of four more sons, with deaths in action of Joe, Fred, Harry and Percy. Additionally, at least two other sons, Alf and John, were seriously wounded, but survived.

Dedication from a floral tribute to Charlotte's sons, from Winnipeg Cenotaph. (Early 1920's?)

In about 1921, Charlotte also suffered the loss of Frederick, her husband of 32 years. By February 1922, she had left Edmonton and moved with her youngest son Charles, to 812 Burnell Street, Winnipeg, which would be her home for the rest of her long life. They were joined in Winnipeg by one of Charlotte's surviving sons from England, Alf Wood, who emigrated to live at 602 Main Street, Winnipeg. A relative remembers that Charlotte was extremely proud of all that her family had done in the war, but was also a little bitter that she and so many other mothers had lost so many loved ones and given so much to the "war to end all wars". For the rest of her life, Charlotte channelled her energies into voluntary organisations serving disabled veterans and bereaved family members, and into acts of commemoration for the fallen. She was an active supporter of the Canadian Legion, and the Honorary President of the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Imperial Veterans of Canada (British Empire Service League); also, a life member of Comrades of the World and the Association of War Widows, and an Honorary Life member of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Old Contemptible Club of Winnipeg. (Continues on next page).

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