Name
Charles Sutton
1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/08/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2724
Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
51st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LA PLUS DOUVE FARM CEMETERY
VI. F. 2.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR DEAR SON AND BROTHER NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPETH
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Berkhamsted memorials
Pre War
Charles Sutton was born in 1895 in Northchurch, nr Berkhamsted, Herts, the son of John and Sarah Ann Sutton and one of three children. He had a brother William and sister Lilian.
On the 1901 Census he was living at High Street, Northchurch, with his mother given as head of the household and working as a book seller. His father was not listed with them at the time. By 1911 they had moved to the Court Estate, Avenue Road, Rushden, Northamptonshire where his father was working as a market gardener and Charles was working as a labourer on the farm.
When he was eighteen, Charles emigrated to Australia, leaving London on 28 October 1913 on the 'Armadale' and arriving at Freemantle, Western Australia on 11 December 1913. He was working there as a farm labourer at the time of enlistment.
Wartime Service
He enlisted into the Australian Infantry on 29 March 1916 and was posted to the 51st Battalion as Private 2724 on 18 April 1916.
He left Freemantle, Australia on the A23 'Suffolk' ship on 10 October 1916 and arrived at Plymouth, England on 2 December 1916. After a short spell in the Military Hospital at Sutton Veny, Wiltshire with laryngitis, over Christmas 1916, he left from Folkestone, Kent on 3 February 1916 on the S S Princess Victoria, bound for France arriving the next day. The Battalion then marched to Etaples to join their unit on 9 February and were taken on strength in the field on 10 February 1917.
Charles was killed in action on 26 August 1917 and is buried in La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery, Belgium.
Additional Information
His father died on 12 May 1917 in Rushden, Northamptonshire aged 53.
His mother later lived at 14 Spring Vale, Dartford, Kent. from where she ordered his personal headstone inscription, which reads: "IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR DEAR SON AND BROTHER NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPETH".
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, naa.gov.au
