ID: WW2_CHP

TitleCharles Howard Passadoro - Calcutta Light Horse
AbstractWW2 Memorial Profiles - West Mersea

CHARLES HOWARD PASSADORO
Trooper
Calcutta Light Horse
Died 13 April 1940 age 29 years
Buried Bengal, India
Commemorated on West Mersea War Memorial

Charles Howard Passadoro of The Firs, West Mersea, and 33 Jessore Road Dum Dum Bengal India died 13 April 1940 at Presidency General Hospital Calcutta India. He was the elder son of Mr & Mrs Howard Passadoro and was married to Ethel Olive Passadoro née Payton. Charles had a brother Denis who was in the RAF Volunteer Reserve and was killed 5 February 1943, and he had a sister Audrey Caroline who married Theodore Charles Tapp and also lived at The Firs.

The Passadoro family moved settled in Mersea in the 1920s and by 1939 all three siblings with their families were living in The Firs. Their father Howard has an interesting background. He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, was also known as Carlo Howard Passadoro, and was a Welsh-Italian footballer who won four Italian Football Championship titles with Genoa C.F.C. between 1899 and 1903. His parents were Genoese and his father is listed in the 1881 census as a coal exporter living in the Roath area of Cardiff.

Charles had worked in India as an Engineer in the mid 1930s. 15 September 1939 he left London for Bombay. In India, he joined the Calcutta Light Horse which was part of the British Indian Army. Initial reports said that he been fatally injured playing polo, but later reports said he died in a riding accident while taking part in military exercises.

Essex County Standard - 20th April 1940
Death of Mr C.H. Passadoro - News has been received of the death in India on Saturday of Mr Charles Howard Passadoro of The Firs, West Mersea who was killed while playing polo. Mr Charles Passadoro was the elder son of Mrs Passadoro and the family have lived for a number of years in West Mersea and are extremely well known. He was a great sportsman and was always well to the fore on regatta days and in other sailing or sporting events.

Essex County Standard - 27th April 1940
In the paragraph published last week as to the death of Mr Charles Howard Passadoro it was stated that he was killed while playing polo, but we are informed that this is not correct and that he was killed in a riding accident while taking part in military exercises with the Calcutta Light Horse in which unit he was a trooper.

When Charles died, probate was granted to Ethel Olive Passadoro (widow).

With thanks to:
British Library
Roger Bullen
Carol Wyatt

The name is sometimes spelled Passodoro, even in the Electoral Roll.

Keywordspassadora, passodora
SourceMersea Museum
IDWW2_CHP