Name
Charles George Collis
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/07/1916
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
18326
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CORBIE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
Plot 1, Row , Grave 33
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock, Holy Trinity Church Memorial, Weston
Pre War
Charles George Collis was born in 1887 in Weston, Herts, the son of James and Mary Collis (nee Pratt), and was baptised on 18 May 1887 at Weston.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Maiden Street, Weston, where his father was working as a blacksmith and they remained there in 1901. His mother died in 1905, aged 44. Sadly, it seems she took her own life and that of her youngest son Alexander by drowning in the village pond [reported in the Royston Crow newspaper]. His father remarried in 1906 to May Turner and by 1911, although his father, stepmother and family were still living in Weston, Frank had moved and was a boarder at the home of Frank Lee (a blacksmith), his wife Annie and their two young children, at Turnpike, Baldock and was working as a farm labourer.
He married May Aveley in 1912 and they lived in Hitchin Street, Baldock with their two children, Violet (born 1912) and Charles (born 1914). Prior to enlistment Charles was employed at Simpsons, a brewery in Baldock.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in December 1914 in Bedford and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, serving with the 2nd Battalion in France from 2 October 1915.
Charles was wounded during the 1st Battle of the Somme and the attack on Trones Wood, to the east of Montauban. He died of his wounds on 12 July 1916, aged 29, at No. 5 Casualty Clearing Station, which was then stationed at Corbie. He is buried in Corbie Communal Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £6 10s. She also received a pension of 18s 6d a week for herself and her two children and later lived at Coleman's Court, Hitchin Street, Baldock.
His son, also named Charles, died in 1921 aged 6, and Charles is commemorated on his son’s headstone in Baldock Cemetery, the inscription reads:
In Loving Memory of CHARLES F. L. COLLIS
JANY. 2ND 1921, AGED 6 YEARS
While innocently I was at play,
A motor car came and took my life away.
"Jesus called a little child unto Him"
Also of his Father
CHARLES C . COLLIS,
Killed in action in France
JULY 13TH 1915, AGED 29 YEARS
His son Charles was killed by a speeding car and the driver was sent to prison for 12 months.
N.B. All military records show Charles' death as 12 July and his regimental number as 18326. The CWGC website currently gives his regimental number as 18325 instead of 18326, despite their original documents giving the correct number ending in '6'.
Brother to Harold who served with the East Surrey Regiment and Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, Peter Handy,
