Regimental Number: 808542
Rank: Corporal
Branch: 137th Battalion; 50th Battalion; 31st Reserve Battalion
Charles was born in Chester, England on October 4, 1884. At the time of his enlistment in February of 1916, he was farming in Hutton, Alberta. Charles was wounded in action twice; he received a gunshot wound to the head in May of 1917, and shrapnel wounds to his left shoulder in October of 1917. A month later he was awarded the military medal for “bravery in the field.” In August of 1918, bricks fell on Charles’s right shoulder and he was injured yet again. According to a doctor’s report the following month, “he has been slow in response to treatment because he has not been anxious to get along.” In November of 1918 Charles was granted permission to marry, though his pay had been going to his wife, Rosa Dorothy Heath, for some time before that. The couple had two sons, Gordon and Donald. According to Rosa’s obituary (September 1984), she and Charles had come to Grande Prairie in 1956. Not long after that, on June 2, 1957, Charles died and was buried in the Grande Prairie cemetery.
Source: headstone; Rosa’s obituary