Charles
S.
Hance

CHARLES SAVILLE "REDS" HANCE was born on September 22, 1912 to Charles and Gertrude Hance in Philadelphia. His mother passed when he was quite young and his father remarried. The Hance family remained in Philadelphia through at least January, 1920. The 1920 Census shows Charles and Jenny Hance and four Hance children, George, Charles, Anna, and Sophie as well as two of jenny's children from a previous marriage, Isabella and George Moore.

By 1924 the Hance family was living at 2911 East Octagon Road in Yorkship Village. The elder Hance worked as a stone cutter in Philadelphia. In the 1940s Charles and Jennie Hance lived at 2995 Mt. Ephraim Avenue, the home of Fairview Post 71 of the American Legion, where he also worked as a janitor.

Charles S. Hance was appointed to the Camden Police Department on February 8, 1938. He joined the force on the February 18th. Then a resident of 1305 Argus Road in Fairview, he and his wife, the former Mildred H. Issel, were living at 543 Haddon Avenue when the 1947 Camden City Directory was compiled. 

On September 5, 1949 Officer Hance took part in the arrest of Howard Unruh, who had gone on a shooting spree in Cramer Hill that had resulted in the death of 13 people.

By the fall of 1956 Charles S. Hance and his family had moved to 1053 North 36th Street in Cramer Hill. Although he retired from the police department on pension by the mid-1960s, he continued to make his home at the North 36th Street address as late as the fall of 1977. 

Charles Hance passed away in July of 1983 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, survived by his wife Mildred, daughters Treva and Trudy, and sons Charles R., Ernest, and George R. Hance. 

HANCE NAMED TO POST OF RETIRING POLICEMAN

Director of Public Safety Kobus yesterday announced the appointment of Charles S. Hance, 1305 Argus Road; as a patrolman, He succeeds Charles Smith of the Second district, who will retire on police pension effective February 16.

September 5, 1949

In this photo from the Camden Courier-Post, Detective William Kelly (left) and Officer Charles S. Hance stand ready to fire during he September 5, 1949 standoff between city police and Howard Unruh, who barricaded himself inside his apartment at North 32nd Street and River Road in Cramer Hill after shooting 13 people to death. More than 50 Camden policemen took part in the arrest. 

Charley Humes