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Remember...Charles Wesley Lewellyn and William Todd Lewellyn
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Charles Wesley Lewellyn and William Todd Lewellyn were twin brothers born to Asa Clarence Lewellyn and Laura Maude Kimble Lewellyn on May 1, 1926, in Ritchie County, West Virginia. They were the middle children in a large family that included also Asa Clarence Jr., Gertrude, Mary, Edith, Laura, Earl, and Joe. Charles and William married young—Charles to Wilda Jacqueline Moody, with whom he had two children, David Wesley and Sandra "Charlee" Charlene. William married Mildred Geraldine Matson, with whom he had one child, Anthony Wayne. Both Charles and William enlisted in the Navy Reserve in their senior year at Harrisville High School and were inducted into the regular Navy in September 1944.
| Seaman First Class Charles Lewellyn and Seaman First Class William Lewellyn were killed May 11, 1945, when the aircraft carrier on which they were serving, the USS Bunker Hill, was struck twice by kamikaze planes near Okinawa. Although they are buried at sea, they are memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. They also have military headstones at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Pruntytown. |  |
For a more detailed biography of Charles William Lewellyn and William Todd Lewellyn, visit their biography page, written by Autumn Knotts, Karigan Wildroudt, and Jenna Austin, at the West Virginia National Cemeteries Project, courtesy of the West Virginia Humanities Council: https://wvhumanities.org/wp-content/national_cemeteries/Lewellyn_Charles_W_and_William_T-USN.pdf.
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West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
