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Charles Herbert Over
British Army 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment
(d.20th Oct 1914)
Charles Herbert Over was my mother’s uncle and was born in Brinklow, Warwickshire on 25th July 1890. He enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Coventry on 18th January 1909 aged 18½ and was given the army number 1368. Unfortunately his service records, like many others, were destroyed by bombing during WW2 and his story jumps forward to 1911 when he is recorded on the Military Census as serving with the 1st Btn in India. The individual photo was taken in Bombay and I have assumed that the group photo was at their barracks although I cannot trace its whereabouts. The 1st Btn. returned to the UK in January 1913 and I can only, once again, assume that at some point between then and August 1914 that he reverted back to the 2nd Btn.
The 2nd Btn. was part of the 7th Division of the 22nd Brigade which left the UK on 4th of October 1914 on the SS Cymrie, and landed at Zeebrugge, Belgium on 6th of October.
For the next two weeks they were constantly repositioned in an area to the east of Ypres, from which direction the German attack was expected. On 19th October they moved off from Besselare and met the enemy at Dadizeele. This was their first major encounter with the enemy and was to develop into what is known as the First Battle of Ypres. There were very many men killed or wounded in the first two days of fighting. Charles was declared to have died from his wounds on 20th October 1914. He was buried in the Ypres Reservoir South Cemetery (which was the first in Ypres town) but this cemetery and a second one were later exhumed and re-interred at the 3rd cemetery which is there today and is known as Ypres Reservoir Cemetery. His name is recorded on the memorial plaque in Brinklow church along with his younger brother who was in the Royal Engineers and was killed in 1918.
