WARNER Charles Victor

Appears on the memorial under Sailors with the information: A.B. Jan. 22 1917

Charles Warner was born at Burgh Castle, Suffolk, in 1894. The family, including Charles aged 6 and his siblings, were resident at High Road, Burgh Castle in 1901, his father James was a journeyman carpenter. By 1904 the family had moved to Aston Magna, Worcestershire. The same year Charles’s mother died and was buried at Blockley; the following year his father, now an ‘engineman’, married Annie Payne at Blockley.

By the time of the 1911 census the family were living in Moreton in Marsh and James was employed as a water inspector with the rural district council. It is probable that Charles had left home for, on census night, he was listed with the family of Henry Howard Jones, draper and outfitter, in Market Square in Chipping Norton. His occupation was given as an apprentice draper.

On 1st September 1914, within a month of the outbreak of war, Charles enlisted with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His military records contain a home address in Farringdon Road, London, but this seems to be in connection with the second part of his military career when he had a London serial number LZ/34. His initial enlistment is likely to have been from elsewhere, possibly Chipping Norton, when he had the serial number K/296.

If he had joined the RNVR as a preferred posting instead of becoming an infantryman he was to be disappointed. As with many from the RNVR he was posted into the Royal Naval Division (RND), formed by Winston Churchill to use those who were surplus to requirements as ships’ crews. They were formed into battalions each having the name of a distinguished past admiral. During the war the RND fought as infantry, first in the Dardanelles and later in France.

Charles was posted to the Nelson Battalion of the RND and will have fought with them in the Dardanelles. He was wounded but continued in action. Later he was invalided back to the UK, apparently from illness. In 1916 he was drafted for the British Expeditionary Force and joined the Drake Battalion in France. In January 1917 he was again wounded and two days later he died from his wounds at a Casualty Clearing Station operating at Puchevillers.

At some point his family had moved to Days Lane in Blockley, and he is commemorated on the Blockley war memorial.

From Royal Naval Division Casualties of the Great War:
Charles Victor Warner
Royal Naval Volunteer Force, Drake Battalion
Able Seaman, service number London Z/34, Drake Battalion
Born August 1894
Occupation: draper
Address: 45 Farringdon Street, London EC
Died 22 January 1917 of wounds in 3rd Casualty Clearing Station (gunshot wounds – multiple fracture left tibia, back and face 20/1/17)
burial Puchevillers Cemetery (FR 74)
Next of kin: mother Mrs James Warner, The Cottage Hospital, Hospital Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucester, later of Days Lane, Blockley, Worcester

1/9/14 enlisted
22/10/14-15/6/15 Nelson Battalion. Gunshot wound
9/7/15-19/7/15 Nelson Battalion. Enteric
2/10/15 invalided to UK
21/10/16 drafted for BEF
12/12/16-20/1/17 Drake Battalion. Wounded