Name
Charles Rogers
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/07/1916
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
C/5
King’s Royal Rifle Corps
16th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CATERPILLAR VALLEY CEMETERY, LONGUEVAL
XVI. K. 14.
France
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 Urban District Memorial
Pre War
Charlie Rogers was born in Croxley Green in 1891. His parents, William and Grace Rogers, originated from Cornwall.
In 1901 they were living at 7 Dickinson Square with eight children. William and his three eldest sons all worked at Croxley Mill. In 1911 Charles, aged 19, his parents and three siblings were still at 7 Dickinson Square. William and two of Charles’ brothers worked at the paper mill. Charles was a wheelwright by profession.
Unusually amongst the Croxley Church Lads, he was married. His marriage to Miriam (nee Hudson) was registered in Watford district in the third quarter of 1915.
When Charlie was killed, his parents had already lost their youngest son, Jim, earlier in 1916, as the result of an accident. After the war Charlie’s widow Miriam Eliza Rogers lived at "Glencairn," 6, Marine Rd., Eastbourne. She did not remarry and died there in 1961.
Recorded as enlisting in Watford.
Wartime Service
C/5, Rifleman, 16th King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Charlie Rogers was one of the Croxley Church Lads who enlisted at the beginning of the war in the 16th KRRC (100th Brigade, 33rd Division).
He arrived in France with the battalion on 16 November 1915. Charlie was killed in action in hard fighting in an attack at High Wood near Bazentin during the Somme offensive on 15th July 1916 aged 25. The battalion had received Divisional orders to attack the German trenches known as the Switch Line in front of Martinpuich at 9am. They came under hostile machine-gun fire almost as soon as they began the advance. Although this carried on for most of the day the 33rd Division managed to get forward as far as the line of the road connecting High Wood with Little Bazentin.
Charlie is buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, just across the fields from High Wood.
Additional Information
After his death, he was recorded as the son of William Rogers, of 7, Dickinson Square, Croxley Green, Watford, Herts. and husband of Miriam Eliza Rogers who was then living at "Glencairn," 6, Marine Rd., Eastbourne.
Acknowledgments
Tanya Britton, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
