Name
Charles (poss Bertram Charles) Smith
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Charles appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish and census records suggest two possibilities for the man that served:
The first was born on November 16th 1881 to Edwin and Emma Louise Smith (née Furr) and so he would have been thirty-two at the outbreak of war. Baptism and census records list eight children: Martha (bapt 1870), Frank (b 1871), Clara (bapt 1874), George John (bapt 1876), Lydia (b 1879), Charles (b 1881), Grace (bapt 1884) and Alice Louisa (b 1888).
By 1911 Charles was twenty-nine and working as a general labourer.
There is a second possibility, Bertram Charles born on March 25th 1894 to Clara Smith, and this man would have been twenty at the outbreak of war. Clara was the daughter of Edwin and Emma Louise Smith (née Furr) and she married William James Dawson in 1895. The 1901 census confirms that when they married Clara already had two children: Sidney Smith and Bertram Charles Smith. Subsequently all other children have Dawson as their surname. William is absent from the 1911 census, as he had died in 1909, but in 1901, when he was known as James, he was working as a navvy ground worker. The census confirms that there were six children and that Bertram Charles Smith was then known as Charles Smith.
Linda Smith, who is the daughter-in-law of the Sidney Smith who served, was able to confirm that Charles was also known as Chubb. However the family has so far not been able to confirm whether or not he was the Charles who served. This Charles married Florence Bunker and they had a son Brian and at some point were licensees of the Live and Let Live in Pegsdon.
Baptism and census records list the children as Sidney (Smith, b c1892), Charles (Smith, b 1894), Lily (b c1896), Emma (b c1899) and Bertram (b c1901) and Leonard (b c1903). His brother, Sidney Smith, was another man who served and survived.
In 1911, the family is known to be living near The Fox Inn, with Charles (Smith), Bertram and Leonard (Dawson) all present.
Charles is recorded in the Parish Magazine of July 1916 as enlisting between October 21st 1915 and March 2nd 1916 and serving in the Bedfords. By 1918, the man who served was recorded as Private Charles Smith, 30930, “A” Squadron, 1st Troop, 8th Hussars, with his home address as ‘near’ The Fox Inn. After the war he married Florence Bunker.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
