8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Charles James Meredith was born in Tewkesbury in 1880 and moved with his family to Bloomsbury Street, Cheltenham in 1886. Prior to the war, he worked as a drayman for the Cheltenham Original Brewing Company, enlisting in the Gloucestershire Regiment in September 1914 and going to France on 18 July 1915 with the 8th (Service) Battalion.
In the summer of 1916, his battalion was earmarked for the offensive on the Somme, which started on the 1 July. On 3 July the 8th Gloucesters were given the task of attacking the village of Ovillers-la-Boiselle, a place of some 35 houses lying south of the Albert – Bapaume Road. It was the centre of a small salient in the German lines, heavily defended and the subject of much mining and counter mining activities. On 1 July a huge mine containing 24 tons of explosive had been detonated under the German defences nearby, but those at the village still held out. The 8th Gloucesters were to attack via St Andrew’s trench at 7.30am, after an intense one hour bombardment of the German defence systems. In this attack, Charles Meredith was severely wounded, losing both his arms and legs (he was one of 282 Other Ranks reported killed, missing or wounded).
He was evacuated to England and taken to hospital in Northampton where he died on 27 July 1916, aged 36. Brought back to Cheltenham, he was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, after a service at St Peter’s Church, attended by Mr and Mrs George Hopcraft, General Manager of the Cheltenham Brewery, who themselves lost two sons in the war. There is a photograph of Charles Meredith in The Graphic of 19 August 1916. He left a widow, Agnes Maria Meredith (née Clapham) and five children (who lived at 8 Whitehart Street, Cheltenham) – the youngest being born just prior to his father’s death. Mrs Meredith died shortly afterwards and the children were brought up by relatives.
His grave in Cheltenham Cemetery is marked by a CWGC headstone and he is commemorated on the Cheltenham Town War Memorial and those at St Peter’s Church (Tewkesbury Road) and St Mary’s, the Parish Church of Cheltenham).
Researched by Graham Adams 1 February 2013
(Taken from ‘Leaving All that was Dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)