Name
Charles Webb
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/05/1918
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/29550
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RICKMANSWORTH (CHORLEYWOOD ROAD) CEMETERY
EE. 4. II.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green,
All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green,
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Croxley Mill, Croxley Green,
Rickmansworth Town Memorial
Pre War
Charles Webb is buried in Chorleywood Road cemetery, Rickmansworth. Charles was the son of Joseph and Sarah Webb and the husband of Fanny Elizabeth Webb of 267 New Road. At the time of Charles’ birth the family lived in Rodborough near Stroud, Gloucestershire. The date of his birth is uncertain. The birth of a Charles Webb was registered in the Stroud district in the fourth quarter of 1885 but the census records indicate that he was born in about 1886. Charles was christened in Stroud with three siblings on 21 June 1889. His father, Joseph Richard Lewis Webb, was a carpenter and Sarah (nee Ball) was his second wife. They married in 1877. Sarah died in 1887 and Joseph remarried the same year to Kate Clarke. Joseph died in 1889.
At the 1891 census Charles, aged 5, lived with his step-mother Kate Webb in Rodborough. In 1901, aged 14, he was still living with Kate in Rodborough, working as a telegraph messenger. He married Fanny Elizabeth Jordan on 10 April 1909 in Cheltenham. He was 23 and she 33. Charles gave his occupation as a chauffeur. On census day in 1911, Charles and Elizabeth were living with their son Joseph (b. 16 June 1910) as boarders at 13 Manor Cottages, The Swillet, Chorleywood. This was the home of Herbert Biggs, a cowman, and his wife, Elizabeth, who also came from near Stroud. Charles was still working as a domestic chauffeur. The family came to live at 267 New Road, where Charles died. He is listed on the Dickinson memorial so presumably was working for Croxley Mill before he enlisted.
He is recorded as enlisting in Bedford.
Wartime Service
Private Charles Webb, 5th (17th) Battalion Middlesex Regiment, died on 11 May, aged 31.
He enlisted on 16 December 1915 and served with the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. After training at home he arrived in France on 30 March 1917 and served there until 6 June during which time the battalion fought in the German retreat to the Hindenburg line and the Arras offensive.
Charles fell ill as a result of the conditions at the front and was repatriated to England. He was diagnosed with a kidney disease aggravated by war service. After recovering somewhat he joined the 5th (Reserve) Battalion at Chatham but his health deteriorated and he was declared physically unfit. He died at home, 267 New Road, on 11 May 1918 of nephritis (inflammation of the kidney) and lobar pneumonia.
He was awarded the Silver War Badge. His wife Fanny was paid a war gratuity of £11.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014, Chorleywood U3A Our Village in the Great War.
