Name
Charles Alfred Rodwell
12 July 1874
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
41
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
4261
London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles)
1st/16th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 13 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted
Pre War
Charles Alfred Rodwell was born on 12 July 1874 in Uxbridge, Middlesex, the son of Alfred and Agnes Rodwell and one of six children. He was baptised on 23 February 1906 at St John the Evangelist Church, Stoke next Guildford, Surrey. His parents were then living at 46 Stoke Road where his father was a teacher.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at High Street, Berkhamsted where his father was working as a commercial traveller in the clothing trade and Charles was a pupil teacher at a board school. In 1901 Charles was a boarder at the home of widow Sarah Stanton at 56 Church Road, Stoke Within, Surrey and was working as an assistant school master.
He had moved to Hersham, Surrey by 1911 and was a boarder at the home of Abel and Alice Ingram at Ingleside, Molesely Road, where he was working as a school teacher for Surrey County Council.
He married Marion Elizabeth Alexander on 24 July 1915 at St Mary's Church, Walton on Thames, and they lived at Grange Lodge, Ashley Road, Walton upon Thames.
His parents later lived at King's Road, Berkhamsted.
Wartime Service
Charles enlisted in Westminster, London and joined the 16th (County of London) Battalion (Queens Westminster Rifles) of the London Regiment, serving as a Rifleman.
He was killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged 41, during the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 10s and pay owing of £1 0s 8d. She also received a pension 10 shillings a week. She obtained probate of his estate on 3 September 1918 in London with effects of £109 0s 8d.
It was reported that his widow received the news of his death on their first wedding anniversary. She died in 1982 in Hampshire at the age of 99, having never remarried.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
