3rd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
No Army Service or Pension Records have survived for Private Mayo, so information on him is scant but such records that do exist enable us to build up a reasonable picture.
Charles Albert Mayo (he may have been known as ‘Albert’) was born in Gloucester in 1895. It would appear that he was one of two children (the other being his sister, Lottie May, born 1893) to William Mayo and his wife Elizabeth (née Wakeman). They had married in July 1891 and William died in 1894. So it would appear that Charles was born after his father had died. His mother re-married in September 1897, aged 27, to Joseph Higgs (aged 30) a waterman. According to the 1901 Census the couple had three children, Isabella (born 1898); Louisa (born 1899) and Joseph (born 1900).
By the time of the 1911 Census Albert (as his name was recorded), aged 16, was living at 14 Blackfriars, Gloucester, in a boarding house run by his aunt Isabella Wakeman. His occupation was recorded as an ironwork moulder.
According to the Silver War Badge records (the badge was awarded to those discharged from the Army, due to sickness or wounds), Charles enlisted in the Army (Gloucestershire Regiment) on 2 January 1914 and was discharged due to wounds on 8 April 1916. The fact that he enlisted early in 1914 and was given the number 1979 is an indicator that he joined the 3rd Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, then part of the ‘Special Reserve’. This entity had come about as a result of the Haldane Reforms of the Army in 1908 and it was designed to provide a reservoir of trained men for the Army at the time of war. Upon the outbreak of war, it assigned to guard duties around the UK, in the case of the 3rd Glosters at the Woolwich Arsenal.
We know from the surviving Medal Rolls and Index Cards at the National Archives that Charles must have agreed to serve overseas and was transferred to the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment and went to join the battalion in France on 3 December 1914.
In the absence of any service record it is impossible to know what happened to Charles between the time of enlistment and discharge. Assuming that he was, for the bulk of the time, with the 1st Glosters, (part of 3 Brigade, 1 Division) he would have spent the first half of 1915 in or behind the trench lines in the Bethune and Neuve Chapelle sectors of northern France. It is very possible that he was in action during the Battle of Aubers Ridge (9 May), a disastrous battle, where the 1st Glosters casualties amounted to 11 Officers and 253 Other ranks. This was followed by the even more disastrous Battle of Loos, fought between 25 September and 8 October that year, where the British deployed gas for the first time. The battalion lost five officers and 63 other ranks killed, in that battle, with a further five officers and 251 other ranks wounded. It is very possible that Charles was wounded in one of these battles (most likely at Loos) and was repatriated t England
and placed on the strength of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Glosters. A surviving Pension Record Card (PRC) notes that the had suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh (this could be from rifle or machine gun bullet(s) or from shrapnel for shell fire). It could well be the case that his wounds proved not to heal sufficiently to enable him to return to the Glosters and he was discharged from the Army as being no longer physically fit for military service. The PRC notes that he was single and living at the Leather Bottle Inn, Gloucester (which was located in Archdeacon Street).
He died of pneumonia and heart failure on 3 June 1920, age 26. The local newspapers did not report his funeral but in the Gloucester Citizen of 3 June 1921 there is a memoriam notice placed by his sister Lottie and step-sister Louisa.
Private Charles Alfred Mayo was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 21 August 2019 (revised 3 August 2021)