5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Charles Hooper was aged 53 when he re-enlisted for one year’s service in the Territorial Force, on 12 October 1914. On his attestation papers he declared his age to be 49, no doubt concerned that the Army would reject an over 50 year old. He was in fact an ‘old soldier’ having seen service with the Gloucestershire Regiment and the 1891 Census shows him as a Lance Serjeant in the 4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, lodging with the Ritchings family at 40 Coxwell Street, Cirencester. In late 2018 his Pension Record Card (PRC) was released to the public, via the Ancestry website and this indicates that he was originally discharged from the army on 9 July 1909.
It appears that he was born in 1861 at St Mary de Lode, Gloucester and was the third child of William (a corn porter) and Ann Hooper of Gloucester.
In 1905 he married Sarah Jane Haines at Cirencester. She was about twenty years younger and by the time of the 1911 Census had borne five children, two daughters and three sons (two of whom were twins). Charles’ occupation at the time of this census was shown as a caretaker at The Barracks, The Armory, Cirencester, the address given as his residence on his 1914 attestation paper.
He was posted to the 5th Battalion, Gloucester Regiment and presumably served out his time in a training role. Although a few papers relating to his Army Pension survive they contain no detail of his actual service or its length, however, the above PRC does indicate that he was discharged on 23 June 1915, due to osteoarthritis. He died on 19 June 1921 in Cirencester aged, 60, presumably of illness. Curiously administration of his estate was not granted to his widow until 19 July 1930.
Charles Hooper is buried in the Cirencester (Chesterton) Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 13 January 2019 (revised)