Mexborough and Swinton Times, January 15, 1916

Sergeant Charles N Fretwell
8th Leeds rifles

We learn with pleasure that Sgt Charles N Fretwell, some of Mr CW Fretwell, headmaster of the Swinton Bridge boys School, has been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry in the field.

Sgt Charles Fretwell, who is a certified teacher, trained at Cheltenham College, and was on the staff of a Leeds school. He had served seven years with the West Yorkshire Territorials, and went out early last year with the 8th Battalion (Leeds Rifles).

Shortly after arriving at the front he was wounded in the hand. He was guiding a ration party to the trenches when he was hit with shrapnel, and though in very great pain he continued his task, for he was the only member of the party who knew the way, and the rations of the men in the firing trench depended on him. It is apparently for this plucky deed that he has been awarded well merited distinction.

After recuperating at Chichester he returned to the front, and had not been on active service than a fortnight before he and his party were caught in a barn by German battery, who shelled the whole farmstead thoroughly. Sgt Fretwell was wounded in both legs, and was carried to the dressing station on the back of a comrades. He was brought this time to Leicester hospital, from their transferred to the Montague hospital at Mexborough.

Sgt Fretwell is well known in the Swinton district. He is an old boy” of his father’s school. His wife and two children reside in Leeds.