WT1c Charles Nicholas Charlton

Charles Nicholas Charlton was born April 27, 1911 in Sitka, Alaska, to John Charlton, a miner, and Pelegria “Polly” Simanoff Charlton, a homemaker.

The boy was about four when his father died in 1915. Charles moved to Sycamore on the northeast outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived at the Bethany Home for Boys. From 1925 to 1928 he attended Christ School, a private Episcopal boarding school, in Arden, North Carolina.

After applying in Seattle, Mr. Charlton enlisted in the Navy on Feb. 5, 1930 in San Diego. After reason for enlistment, he wrote “study electricity.” He was a watertender and petty officer first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

He was survived by his widow, Lillian Ester, who lived in San Pedro, California, the mainland home port for the Arizona.

It appears that his father also served in the Navy, though his military record could not be located. When he was admitted to a Navy hospital in Sitka in 1900 for a fever, the register said he was a civilian but had previously served 10 years in the Navy.

At least one brother, William, served in the Army from 1950 to 1952.

Sources: The Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer; the San Pedro (California) News-Pilot; the Sitka (Alaska) Daily Sentinel; Census; Navy enlistment records;  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death file. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.