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Charley fought in every major Battle in the first World War, the few he didn't take part in the reader
was told the story by a third party (Blue's narrative on Verdun for instance, or his Cousin Jack's on the Naval Battle
of the Falklands). In the course of his War he had become a Stretcher-Bearer, was a sniper for a while, Snell's Servant,
Tunnelling Engineer, part of a firing squad (twice), involved in the Etaples Mutiny, was wounded twice and Court-Marshalled
(once).
He was a brilliantly crafted character that worked because he was based on a lost Generation of
real, courageous, straight-forward, working-class heroes', who tragically never returned to their homes.
Charley Bourne survived
the War, married Kate, and had a son Len . When Len Joined the Army in secret at the outset of WW2 Charley joins
up again in order to find him.
Mills stopped writing the story at this point (see interview) but the idea of Charley fighting his War in the next conflict
of the 20th Century was always his intention. After he left the story died within a year and Joe Colquhoun passed away
a year after that. According to the answer to a question about Charley's fate at: www.comics-international.com the story ended with him losing a leg and thinking
back to when he was sixteen again (and at this point the comic started to re-run the story from the beginning) This is inacurate,
in fact the story ended with the saving of his son Len, and him deciding that he was too old for war and that he had had enough,
Charley sails off to a peaceful retirement and the story is re-run from the beginning.
Mates
Charley had a succession of mates who were killed quite
quickly after they were introduced. Mills had to constantly write new ones, the portrayal of the loss being the main point
I believe he wanted to drive home. However, it would not have had the same impact if the reader hadn't connected with
the character and not known some of his background before he was killed. Somehow Mills was able to speed up the process of
each character's development without losing the importance of the person and so, in turn the impact on the reader when they
were taken away. The following are the more important supporting Characters in the Story.
Ginger Jones Charley's best friend. Ginger never had a fag out of his mouth and was always the pessimist. Ginger was the
complete opposite of the idealistic Bourne. He was killed by a shell later in the Somme battle and Charley carried his remains
behind the line in a sack to bury him. He was a great character with a real deadpan ,black sense of humour. The shock
of his sudden death and the mental anguish Charley went through because of the grief was a truly sad, moving piece of writing and achieved what
I think Pat Mills was trying to say about the nature of death in war -sudden and un-planned for a waste. Ginger is very typical
of the fatalistic soldier so common on the Western Front. He reminds me of Frank Richards, the authour of the book 'Old soldiers never Die' which I recommend to anyone who hasn't read it. The humour of the British soldier in such indescribable hell is conveyed very
well by Richards as it is by Ginger Jones. the sarge: "Let's hope that brave lad makes it Jones", Ginger " Yes good mate,
was Charley, but he would drink his own bathwater"
A last thought on Ginger; his death may have
come from a book of a real soldiers memoirs on the Somme. He, like Charley, has to bury his mate in a sack after a shell killed
him. The name of the book is "I survived didnt I?"-By private Ginger Byrne. (see Bibliography)
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| Charley burys Ginger |
Captain D'arcy Snell
As well as it's depiction
of the carnage of the Great War 'Charley's War' contained some very obvious asides on class within the Edwardian society it was set in. An example of this is the character of Captain Snell, Charley's Nemeses
and company commander. Snell seems to be the real enemy of the entire story, more so than the Germans. Snell was
sadistic and the men hated him, he finally disappeared when he was shot by one of his own ricochets during 1917, at Messines
ridge where Charley and Co are attached to the 'Clay Kickers' (engineers who dug the London underground who
are employed in tunnelling under the German trenches) he is shot in the head but survives, only to reappear more insane than
he ever was in the hospital where Charley met Kate, his wife-to-be. He returned to duty in 1918 and was finally killed off
on the last day of the war when Charley had a showdown with him. Needless to say Charley won and killed Snell with an acid
sprayer. (Nasty) only to find out he had been 'volunteered" by Snell to stay in the army to fight the Bolsheviks
in Russia. Snell always reminds me of Julian Grenfell, the aristocratic young officer who famously wrote of the War as "An
absoulute bloody picnic, great fun" and recorded the thrill of "Killing Huns with rifle at 50yards, great sport". Snell is
one of the pivots of Charley's War-he is the personification of the upper-class that prolonged the war to its pointless conclusion
at such high cost
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| The Sarge, firm but fair |
Sgt.
'Ole Bill' Tozer
Charleys
beloved and inimitable platoon sergeant who ruled his men harshly but fairly. His name and look was probably based
on Bruce Bairnsfathers 'old Bill' the cartoon anti-hero of the day. Old bill was the father figure to Charley right through
to the end of the war. Once lost his stripes for a while for falling out during a route march, loved a pint and a game of
the illegal Crown and Anchor-typical of the men of the time. Tozer went to Russia with Bourne in 1919. Old Bill was a
great character simply because he was so typical of the regular soldier type of that era-I remember where Charley and
Tozer go on leave together after the Somme and Tozer wants to buy a drink for Charley-he says something like "only one though,
what with me being an NCO and you a private anymore would be a break down in protocol"
Old Bill
with an early character. Note the narrative. The father/son relationship of the sergeant and soldier in the 'old-empire' days
is something that has always fascinated me. Mills used Tozer to great effect within the story, almost as a walking rulebook
with a big heart. In the interim between the Wars Charley bumped into him working as a Cinema Usher, when the Second
War started he joined the Home Gaurd. Brilliant character.
Smithy
and young Albert
Smith 70 was a great eccentric character who was into all things 'a bit technical'.
His number two on his beloved machine gun was Young Albert who always wanted to 'have a go' but never had enough 'experience'.
How he got his name I don't know (When I was a kid I used to think he was actually 70 years old and hence 'young' Albert!)
but I think it's simply that Smith is such a common name and therefore they had to be numbered. In Dunn's 'The war the infantry
knew' this happened with the Jones's in the regiment (a welsh one)! so I think it's probably how Smithy got his name. The
developement of their characters evolved more after Mills saw Joe Colquhoun's artistic interpretation of them. During the
battle of the Somme Smithy transferred to the Tank Corps for a while. Smith 70 and young Albert where two characters who added
some vital humour into the story, at times that it was very dark-although they appeared so infrequently that it never turned
the story into parody. They cropped up usually with some mad scheme of Smithy's like the 'water listening device' or
the famous 'killer rats'. Smith 70 may have been based (visually) on Lennon in 'how i won the war' Last seen in 1918 in a
very technical motorcycle/sidecar mg setup. Shame they never reappeared, maybe mills had planned to had he continued.
Blue
My
favourite character of all (and the origin of my cat's name). Blue was a villain who had joined the foreign legion to escape
conviction. He met Charley after he surprised him as he was breaking into his house. He tells the judgmental Charley
his life-story and they become firm friends with the common ground being the hatred of the waste of lives in France. Blue
reappeared 2 years later when it turned out he was one of the ringleaders of the etaples mutiny. I do not know what happened
to him in the end, so if anyone knows please let me know. Blue, to me, was a vital character because he was a deserter, yet
(like the real-life person he was based on; Percy Toplis) was no coward and had been in the front-line, fought his war but
saw no point in dying for nothing so walks away. Looking back Blue was a thinking version of Charley. Blue was his bad
side. For instance; the plot regarding the Etaples base camp mutiny where Blue is one of the ringleaders has Charley
agreeing with the cause but he just cannot quite bring himself to join the violence and mayhem completely so he remains an
enthusiastic observer. Meanwhile Blue is leading the assault on the commandants office along with Weeper and one or two other
mates of his.
Scene-Old
Bill and Charley the night of the riot. Old Bill - "Bourne get your kit on and get on the bridge as part of the armed guard
to make sure this rabble don't break out and enter the town" Charley-"Well sarge I was thinking.... I think the cause and
demands are fair and I agree with the mutineers...I think" Old Bill - "Think lad? Who gave YOU permission to think? What's
the point of a soldier that thinks? Forget that notion son, sharpish! Just you let me do the thinking and you stick with the
doing, now get your kit grab your rifle and do as your told or else" Charley - "Yes Sarge, Sorry Sarge" -Fantastic.
Blue was the character Charley would have been were it not for the instilled resignation to his fate
that he could never shake. The two are really the same apart from that. Blue was named, I think, after the colour of the French
greatcoat, but wow, is it not the coolest name ever?
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| Charley's short lived mutiny |
'Oily' or 'Oliver'-
Another of Charley's enemies. Oily was his brother-in-law
and was a smooth talking crook that Charley first met when he was called up into the same platoon. He instantly became a pest
and was a coward through and through. In the end he got home with a self-inflicted wound after letting a tank roll over his
foot on the Somme. Due to loyalty to his sister Dolly, Charley kept quiet about it, but hated him ever since. Great character.
It was because Oily had a racket helping deserters escape that Charley met Blue. Oily's only motivation is money - he
could never understand the morals and scruples that Charley has. For that alone he is typical of most people in any era! If
Captain Snell was the personification of the upper classes, then Oliver was the embodiment of the greed and profiteering during
the War. He continued with his black marketing buisness in the Second World War-storing the stuff at Charley's home-Kate being
too distraught over their son being reported as missing to care. (thanks to Chris for the info)
 The Bourne Family
Another of Mill's play on words
was Charley's surname 'a proper Charley born"(geddit?). All his family are here-his Mum, who worked in a munitions
factory not far from their home in Silvertown in the east end of London, his Dad who was a special Policeman, his sister Dolly
(married to Oliver), and troublesome younger brother Wilf. Wilf was desperate to join up and tried several times but was rejected
due to his age. Eventually Oliver arranged false papers and he joined up in time for the third battle of Ypres where he was
wounded. He transferred to the Flying Corps and was killed in 1918. Wilf was a great character because he is also a thinking
version of Charley. Charley goes to the Somme and comes home on leave totally changed in his attitudes to war. He then does
everything he can to stop him joining up. Charley- "Look Wilf, don't waste your life, you were always the one with brains-I
know im a bit thick and probably arent coming back from France in the long run, but that's how it is. Don't waste your brains
lying rotting in France like I will be. Do something with your life!" (If you're discovering the story for the first
time...Told you this Pat Mills geezer was a genius didn't I?)
Weeper Watkins
Another of Charleys mates, so called because of his weeping eyes caused by being gassed. Charley first
met weeper in this picture at the time of the Ypres battle; he later worked with him when he became Captain Snell's servant.
Weeper later joined Blue and deserted at the time of the etaples mutiny. Charley risked being caught as a deserter when he
saved Weeper's life when the latter was on the run after the riots. Weeper was hit by a military policeman's entrenching
tool and Charley took him to the deserter's hideout "sanctuary". *update* In the end Weeper was killed by a character called
Gunboat who had led the Police to the 'Sanctuary' Gunboat accused Charley of leading the Police there and tried to stab
him. Weeper stepped in the way of the knife and was killed instead. (many thanks to Paul Daniel for the info) One of his talents
was throwing his voice after working as a ventriloquist in the dancehalls of London before the war. Weeper was another great
Character because of his realism. He is typical of his time.
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| Domestic bliss Kate Bourne |
Kate
Charley's wife.
Kate met Charley when he was in hospital after accidentally shooting himself through the foot whilst in Ypres in 1917 (and
wrongly accused of cowardice afterwards) She was a nurse in the ward where they treated self-inflicted wounds. She
gave him a white feather because her fiancé had been killed in Gallipoli 1915 and she hated cowards. He met up with her again
in a hospital in England where he met Captain Snell again (see Snell above) Realistic character,
a typical woman; treats you like a bitch, then you marry her!!!!
These, of course are not all of the characters in the story-
I felt that they were the most consistant over the years and presented a fair study overall.
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