Charles Green
Charles Green
Rifleman, County of London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), 17th Battalion
Service no. 576858
Died of wounds 28 September 1918, aged 19
Buried Sunken Road Cemetery, Boisleux-St-Marc (8 kilometres south of Arras), France
Grave reference II.E.22
CWGC: "Son of Charles and Rosa Green of 28 Lydon Road, Clapham, London"
This information has been kindly contributed by Marietta Crichton Stuart.
Tentative identification
The Clapham War Memorial states that C. Green served in the 28th Battalion, London Regiment (The Artists Rifles) but there is no record of a Charles Green on their Roll of Honour. The Old Manorians war memorial also lists a C. Green. The man whose details are given on this page is likely to be the man listed on these memorials - but there remains an element of doubt. Green is, after all, a common name and it is possible that there were two (or more) casualties of the same name living in the Clapham area at this time. However, there are no other candidates currently known to us.
Charles was born c1899 in Clapham (Soldiers that died in the Great War refers to this as Wandsworth). He appears with his parents on the 1901 census at 34 Offerton Road in Clapham Old Town. His father, also named Charles, was 34, a surveyor born in Newington; his mother, Rosa, 33 and Wandsworth born; Charles was 21 months and the household included 44-year-old Emily Wright, a servant, who was born in Westminster.
Charles's parents had been married at Holy Trinity on 17 August 1892 in a ceremony conducted by the Reverend Charles P. Greene, the Rector of Holy Trinity and Rural Dean of Clapham. (Note: The Reverend Greene had been interviewed by Booth during his survey of London.) On the marriage record, Charles described himself as an architect/surveyor of Clapham, born 1866, the son of Charles Joseph Green, a gentleman; 24 year old, born 1868. Rosa gave her address as St Paul’s Clapham and her father as James Hare, contractor.
The 1881 census shows that Rosa lived at 40 Turret Grove, Clapham with her parents James and Harriet, sister Harriet, 21, and brother James, 11. They also had a 75-year-old blind lodger, Mary Anne Poile. Rosa’s father was described here as a road contractor. However, on Rosa's baptismal certificate for St James’ Church Clapham, he was a licensed victualler. At the time of the 1891 census, Rosa was still living at home in Turret Grove, aged 23, and she was working as a governess in a school.
In the 1911 census the Green family was still at 20 Offerton Road. Charles (senior) was 44 and working as Assistant Borough Surveyor, Kingston Corporation; Rosa, 43; Charles, 11 and at school. The household included a servant, Eva Thirza Amy Prior, 23, who was born in Walworth.
Charles went to the local preparatory school, The Manor, on Clapham Common. Details have not yet been traced on his secondary education. He enlisted in the Army in Wandsworth, probably as soon as he reached his 18th birthday. The 17th Londons were in the 47th (2nd London) Division, 141st Brigade and from February 1918 the 140th Brigade.
He died of wounds in late September 1918 near Arras and is buried in Sunken Lane Cemtery, Boisleux-St-Marc. In the same cemetery are two soldiers from the 28th Londons (The Artists Rifles). One, Private James Albert Wilder, O/631, died two days after Charles and the other, Private Garnet Griffiths, 766923, died of wounds on 2 October 1918.
Later, his parents moved house, across Clapham Old Town, to 28 Lydon Road (this is the address given on the Commonwealth War Graves record). Rosa died in Wandsworth Borough in 1943, aged 75. Charles's date of death is unknown.