Sir Charles Carter Chitham CIE JP (13 September 1886 – 25 September 1972) was a British policeman who served most of his career in British India.
Early life Chitham was born in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, the son of Samuel ChithamDebrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage (1963), p. 1,031 by his marriage in 1877 at Longthorpe to Elizabeth Hannah Carter, the eldest daughter of George Carter, of Milton.Leicester Chronicle (Leicestershire, England) dated 25 August 1877 Carter, who died in 1889, was huntsman to the Fitzwilliam Hunt."Carter, George, Personal Estate £16,952 5s 11d, 16 January 1890, The Will with two Codicils of George Carter formerly of Milton but late of Waternewton... who died 10 November 1889..." search at Probatesearch.gov.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2016 Chitham had two older sisters, Isabel (1878–1963) and Clara (1880–1962). By 1887 Samuel Chitham was the school attendance officer for Bosworth,Leicester Chronicle (Leicestershire, England) dated 24 December 1887 and in 1907 and 1911 he was vaccination officer in Bedford."Order Made to Vaccinate" in Bedfordshire Mercury (Bedfordshire, England) dated 4 January 1907Census for Bedfordshire, 1911, online at ukcensusonline.com. Retrieved 20 July 2016 Chitham was educated at Bedford School.Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, Volume 95 (1969), p. 454
Career In 1906 Chitham joined the Indian Police,"CHITHAM, Sir Charles Carter", in Who Was Who (A & C Black, 1920–2016); online edition at ukwhoswho.com by Oxford University Press, 2014 (subscription site). Retrieved 19 July 2016 and by December 1912 he was an Officer of the Central Provinces Police at Nagpur."Officers of the Central Provinces Police, Nagpur, Dec 1912", in India Office Select Materials, shelfmark Photo 878/(2), at bl.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2016 By 1915 he was an Assistant Superintendent of Police in the Central Provinces, and in April 1915 was posted to Port Blair as 3rd Assistant Superintendent in the Andaman and Nicobar Police.The Gazette of India dated 1 May 1915, p. 628 In 1926 Chitham was promoted from District Police Superintendent to Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Crime, and Railways, in the Central Provinces.The Pioneer Mail and Indian Weekly News (Vol. 53, 1926), p. 39 In 1931 he was appointed as Inspector-General of Police for the Central Provinces, was knighted in 1936, and was Federal Public Service Commissioner at Delhi in 1937 and 1939. Returning to Britain, he served as Acting Inspector of Constabulary for the South West Region of England from 1940 to 1945.
Chitham's mother died at home, 89, Beverley Crescent, Bedford, in March 1931,Bedfordshire Times and Independent (Bedfordshire, England) dated 3 April 1931 and his father, Samuel Chitham, died there in May 1932.Bedfordshire Times and Independent (Bedfordshire, England) dated 13 May 1932
In England Chitham settled at the Old Rectory, Great Cheverell, Wiltshire, a house he and his uncle Frank L. Carter had bought about 1939.A. P. Baggs, D. A. Crowley, Ralph B. Pugh, Janet H. Stevenson and Margaret Tomlinson, 'Parishes: Great Cheverell', in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 10, ed. Elizabeth Crittall (London, 1975), pp. 41–53 In 1945 he became a Justice of the Peace and was also elected to Wiltshire County CouncilWarminster, Westbury, and District Directory 1960–61 (B. Lansdown & Sons, 1960), p. 7 and appointed as a governor of Dauntsey's School.Public & Preparatory Schools Yearbook 1963 (A. & C. Black, 1963), p. 146 On 6 July 1961, as chairman of the Wiltshire Standing Committee, he laid the foundation stone of the new Wiltshire Police headquarters at Devizes.Dee La Vardera, The Little Book of Wiltshire (The History Press, 2013), p. 219
Chitham's older sister, Isabel, died unmarried while living with him in Wiltshire in 1963."Chitham Isabel of the Old Rectory Great Chevrell Wiltshire spinster died 25 February 1963 at Devizes and District Hospital" (probatesearch.gov.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2016) Chitham died in 1972. A small housing development at Great Cheverell is named "Chitham Close" in his memory.
Honours King's Police Medal (KPM), 1931The London Gazette (Supplement) dated 1 January 1931, p. 16 Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE), 1934The London Gazette (Supplement) dated 1 January 1934, p. 6 Knight Bachelor (Kt), New Year Honours, 1936, investiture by Viceroy of India 16 April 1937The London Gazette dated 20 April 1937, p. 2549
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