Charles was born in late 1894 in Ackleton, near Worfield in Bridgenorth Shropshire and was baptised on 23rd December 1894 at Badger.
In the 1901 census Charles was aged 7 and living with his parents William (a gardener aged 42) and Emily Jane Jones (38), Frederick (9), Lucy Mary (8) in Ackleton.
By 1911 Charles, now a 16 year old gardener, still lived with his parents but by now there was a younger sibling (Hilda May aged 8). The family lived at 12, Hopstone, Bridgenorth and the father was now a cowman.
Charles’s family history can be seen at http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/70118846/person/42216183041/facts
The 4th Battalion of the Grenadier Guards was formed at Marlow on 14th July 1915. Military records for Charles have not been found but www.ancestry.co.uk suggests that he enlisted at Worcester, but it is not known when. The battalion was mobilised for war and landed in France to join the 4th Guards Brigade of the 31st Division on 19th August 1915. This battalion saw action at the battle of Loos, the largest British offensive mounted in 1915 on the Western Front during World War One, and saw the first British use of poison gas. The Grenadier Guards list of enlisted casualties states that Charles was killed at the River Lys:
For more about this battle see: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/french-flanders-artois/memorial-loos-memorial.htm
For more about memorial at Loos: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/french-flanders-artois/memorial-loos-memorial.htm
Charles is also named on the Caergwrle War Memorial: and the Claverley Church Memorial. It is not known what was his relationship to Hope and Caergwrle, and how he came to be on these memorials.
The Record of Soldiers Effects records that on 23rd May 1919 Charles’s father was sent £9 11s, including war gratuity.
