Name
Charles Walter Duncan
1/01/1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/11/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Northamptonshire Regiment
2nd Bn. Attd 6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARTILLERY WOOD CEMETERY
IV. F. 4.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
No family inscription on his Headstone.
UK & Other Memorials
Cheshunt Town Memorial, Christ Church (formerly Holy Trinity Church) Memorial Waltham Cross
Pre War
We believe this to be the C. W. Duncan on the Cheshunt and Waltham Cross Memorials
Charles Walter Duncan was born in Paddington, London/Middlesex, on the 1st January 1894, the only child of Walter Duncan and Elizabeth Duncan, (nee Wheeler).
Baptised at St Paul’s Church, Paddington, on the 18th February 1894.
We believe Charles’s mother Elizabeth remarried in about 1895, possibly to William Collins.
1901 & 1911 Census records for Charles were not found.
In August 1910, Charles enlisted under the alias Charles Collins, in the 5th Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) with the service number 5/3966. He signed on for 6 years, giving his age as 17 years & 6 months, and his occupation as a Mineral Water Maker.
Charles married Amy Knightley of Waltham Abbey, Essex, the daughter of Frederick and Clara Knightley, at St George Hanover Square, London, Registry Office on the 17th June 1914. They went on to have one daughter Irene Amy Dorothey Duncan, born in September 1917.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war Sergeant Charles Collins was serving with the 5th Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC), arriving on the Western Front on the 30th November 1914.
In August 1916, he was serving with “D” Company, 11th (Service), Battalion, KRRC.
He rose through the ranks to Company Quartermaster Sargent and in late 1916, he was recommended for a commission. In March 1917, he applied to assume his birth name Charles Walter Duncan. On 7th April 1917, he was admitted to No 4. Officer Cadet Training Battalion, at Oxford.
Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant Charles Walter Duncan to the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment on the 29th August 1917.
Charles was Killed in Action on the 22nd November 1917, aged 23, while attached to the 6th Battalion. He is buried in the CWGC Artillery Wood Cemetery, in Belgium.
Additional Information
His effects of £85-15s-5d, Pay Owing and his War Gratuity of £22, went to his executers Edward Sankey Wishlade and Harry Hailey.
It is believed Amy died in July 1918, and daughter Irene was brought up by Amy’s sister Emily Hammond (nee Knightley) and her husband William Hammond.
Daughter Irene married Harry Walter Short in Stoke Newington, London, in 1940. Harry Walter Short was awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry, for his actions on the night of the 12th/13th December 1944, in Italy.
Charles’s service record is available at the National Archive, Kew, London.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
