Name
Charles George Thomas Machon
1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/08/1917
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/18070
The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 12 and 14.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Cheshunt Town Memorial, Barley Village Memorial, St Margaret's Church Memorial, Barley, St Clements Church Memorial, Turnford, Not on the Anstey Memorial
Pre War
Charles George Thomas Machon was born in Anstey, Hertfordshire, in 1883, the son of George Machon and Mary Jane Machon (nee Clark) and one of seven children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at The Chequers Inn, Cheapside, Anstey, Herts and his father's occupation was recorded as plumber and glazier. His mother Mary Jane Machon died in 1892, aged 38 and his father George remarried in 1895, to Sarah Ann Clark. On the 1901 Census his father was living with his new wife and his younger children, Francis, Ada and Harry at South End, Barley, Herts. Meanwhile, Charles, along with his sisters Sarah (22) and Florence (19), were living with his widowed grandmother Elizabeth Machon, at Church End, Barley. Charles (17) was then working as a builder's painter. His grandmother died in 1902, both sisters had married, so by the 1911 Census, Charles was a boarder at the home of Charles and Elizabeth Tullett and their family at 7 Nursery Cottages, Turnford, Herts. He was then working as a handyman and a garden nursery.
Before enlistment he was living at Fernside Cottages, Turners Hill, Cheshunt, Herts.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted at Enfield, Middlesex, and was posted to the 7th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), and issued with the service number G/18070. On completion of his training, he served on the Western Front.
Charles was killed in action and death was presumed on or since 4 August 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres (known as Passchedaele). He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium to the missing.
Additional Information
His sister Ada Grace Jessie Machon received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £7 1s 4d. She also obtained probate (with will) of his estate in London on 7 March 1919 with effects of £319 11s 8d.
A pension card exists with his father as dependant, but no pension amount is recorded.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne, Brenda Palmer
Paul Johnson, Adrian Pitts
