231635 Pte. Charles Frederick William Green British Army 21st (1st Surrey Rifles) Btn. London Regiment from:Clapham, London Charles Frederick William Green was born in Clapham on 6th May 1898, the only son of Charles and Clara Green. His mother was the former Clara Neplina Ruler, who was born in Geelong in the colony of Victoria, during 1854, at the height of the Australian gold rush. He had a sister Pollie Elizabeth born 1898. Up until the outbreak of WWI, he worked as a shipping clerk for the Edinburgh & London Shipping Company at Wapping Wharf.
At the age of 17 he enlisted in the Territorial Force, later to be renamed the Territorial Army, to train as a rifleman in the 1/21st London Division, First Surrey Rifles. When England declared war on Germany the battalion was in Salisbury for its annual training fortnight. They returned first to HQ at 4 Flodden Road in Camberwell, and then on to St. Albans for battle training.
1/21st London Division (First Surrey Rifles) disembarked at Le Havre on 16th March 1915, only the second TF Division to be sent to France to bolster the BEF. They fired their first shots from the trenches near Bethune on the evening of 2nd April. After 331 days in France, serving on various fronts, including Aubers Ridge, Festubert and the Battle of Loos on the Somme, Rifleman Green was returned to England as part of the 47th Division, which left Le Havre on 8th February 1916, having completed the four years of service he had signed up for. He was not yet 23 years old. Charles re-enlisted in July 1916 in the Royal Horse Artillery at Woolwich.
He was attached to the Army Reserves in 1920. He was married to Dorothy Annie Saxby in 1938 and died in London on 1st September 1961.
If anyone has any information on Charles's service with the RHA, I would be most grateful to learn of it.
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