Charles Cary

Born: 11 November 1886

Died: 2 December 1918

Rank and Regiment: Gunner and Acting Corporal 168454 in the 1089th Battery of the Royal Field Artillery

Resting Place: Jabalpur Cantonment Cemetery - Plot CE/6; Grave J 62

Memorial: St. Peter’s, Reymerston, United Kingdom

Charles Cary was born in Reymerston on 11 November 1886, the son of Louis and Rebecca Cary (nee Fuller) who were local farmers . He was baptised in Reymerston Church on 1 February 1887.

The family moved at one stage to Hardingham; Charles is recorded as attending Hardingham school from 24 April to 18 September 1899, leaving to go into agricultural work.

In 1901 he was working on Walnut Farm in Reymerston, the family farm, with his father and older siblings.

Ten years later, aged 24, he was working for the Great Eastern Railway in Beccles as a railway clerk, and was lodging with the Rouse family. The following year, he and Florence Rouse, the youngest daughter of the family, married at Wangford, Suffolk.

They had two children, Percy born in 1914 and Daisy born in 1916.

Charles served in the Royal Field Artillery; his service number is variously recorded as 168454, 156454 and 1684541.

He died in India on 2 December 1918; the circumstances of his death are not recorded. He is buried at Jabalpur Cantonment Cemetery (Plot CE/6; Grave J 62). He appears to have been overlooked when the magnificent Great Eastern Railway monument at Liverpool Street Station was constructed.

When the War Office came to pay out his effects and the War Gratuity to Florence, they inadvertently paid out a total of £38 16s 9d, where they should have paid out £38 16s 7d. Somebody in the War Office displayed a glimmer of humanity and common sense when this was realised; there is a brisk pencil note on the record “Too trivial”.

Jabalpur Cantonment Cemetery, India