copyright © Wartime Heritage Association 2012-2024
Website hosting courtesy of Register.com - a web.com company
Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War II
Name:
Charles Joseph King
Rank:
Lieutenant
Service Number:
O-081342
Service:
USS Ingraham, United States Navy
Awards:
Purple Heart
Date of Birth:
July 10, 1917
Place of Birth:
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Date of Enlistment:
1934
Place of Enlistment:
New Hampshire
Age at Enlistment:
Unknown
Next of Kin:
Vivian Tessa King (Wife), 112 Rutledge Ave., Charleston, South Carolina
Date of Death:
August 22, 1942
Age:
25
Memorial:
East Coast Memorial, Manhattan, New York
Grave:
Tablets of the Missing
Charles Joseph King was the son of Arthur James King (b. 1889) and Catherine Sarah
(Shaw) King (1887-1918). His mother was born in Main-a-Dieu, Cape Breton County,
Nova Scotia, and his father was born in Massachusetts. Catherine was the son of George
Shaw and Margaret (Macdonald) Shaw. Charles’ father served in the military during the
First World War. Charles married Vivian Tessa Styles (1916-2003), on November 30,
1940, in Colleton, South Carolina.
Charles graduated from the Bigelow School in South Boston in 1930, and the Boston
Latin School with the class of 1934. Charles headed for the US Naval Academy in
Annapolis, Maryland.
He entered Class IV-B from Bigelow School, 1930; participated in the Drum corps, 1930-31-32-33-34; the
Physics Club, 1933-34; and the Glee Club, 1933-34.
Charles was nominated as first alternate to the US Naval Academy by Congressman John W. McCormack in
March 1934.
In 1920, Charles and his father lived with his paternal grandparents and uncles at 218 West 5th Street in
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. His father was a crane contractor. In 1930, his father worked in a
rubber factory.
Partial record of Charles’ service shows his rank and service at the time:
January 1939
Ensign, USS Portland, Portland-class cruiser (CL-33)
October 1939
Ensign, USS Roe, a Sims-class destroyer (DD-418)
June 1940
Ensign, USS Roe
November 1940
Ensign, under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
April 1941
Ensign, treatment, Naval Hospital Pensacola, Florida
Lieutenant Charles Joseph King died when USS Ingraham (DD 444), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was lost on
August 22, 1942.
The USS Ingraham was guarding Scotland-bound convoy T-20 out of Halifax. After an erroneous report of
enemy submarine, convoy escorts manoeuvred to locate the enemy in heavy fog. On the night of 22 August, as
she was investigating a collision between the destroyer Buck and a merchant vessel, Ingraham collided with
the oil tanker Chemung AO-30 in heavy fog off the coast of Nova Scotia and Ingraham sank almost immediately
off the coast of Nova Scotia. Depth charges on her stern detonated as she went down with the loss of 214
known casualties which included two brothers, Seaman 2nd Class James K. Clark (USNR) and Lawrence R. Clark
(USNR).
Only eleven men survived.
With no known grave but the sea, Charles Joseph King is remembered at the Tablets of the Missing at the East
Coast Memorial in Manhattan, New York.
Charles Joseph King