1/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Charles Jordan Smart was born in the Parish of St Luke’s, Gloucester in about September 1882. His parents were Charles Smart (a polisher by trade) and his wife Elizabeth. He is believed to have had a sister.
Charles (senior) had died by the time of the 1911 Census when Charles (junior), aged 28, was living at 29 Carmarthen Street, Tredworth, Gloucester, along with his 66 year old mother, Elizabeth. Charles’ occupation is shown as a stonemason for a firm of ecclesiastical masons.
Fortunately, an Army Pension Record has survived for Charles and this shows that he enlisted in the Territorial Force (TF), for the duration of the war on 7 August 1914. His attestation papers show tha he belonged to the ‘National Reserve’, suggesting that he had some military experience, maybe as a member of the Territorial Reserve the Militia. His declared age of 32 years and 11 months and early enlistment give credence to this, as to his promotion to the rank of Lance Corporal on 31 October 1914. At the time of enlistment, he still lived at 29 Carmarthen Street.
He was allocated the number 3067 and was posted to the 1/4th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, a TF battalion. In the winter of 1914/15, the battalion was stationed at Danbury, near Maldon on the Essex coast and in January 1915 Charles visited the regimental doctor complaining of feeling ill and short of breath. During the following month the doctor observed him going about his duties and noting that he did not look well examined him. It was discovered that Charles was exhibiting an irregular pulse and heart beat and a shortness of breath on exertion. He was diagnosed as having heart disease and was discharged from the Army on 10 March 1915, as no longer physically fit for war service. He had served for only 216 days, entirely in the UK. He left the Army with a ‘good character’ endorsement. As his condition was seen as partly aggravated by military service he was granted a 50% incapacity pension. There was also the award of a Silver War Badge, to denote his discharge for medical reasons.
On 26 April 1916 Charles (aged 32) married Selina Hughes at Newent, she was 28. By this time Charles had become a postman. The couple’s first child, Charles Thomas, was born in late 1917 and a brother, James Charles, followed in early 1919, by which time his father had died.
The circumstances of Charles’ death were conveyed in a report of his funeral published in the Gloucester Journal of 4 January 1919. He was employed in the parcels’ department of the General Post Office at George Street, Gloucester (adjacent to the GWR railway station). At about 1.15am on 29 December 1918 he suddenly collapsed and a doctor was hastily summoned but he had died shortly before his arrival. It was noted that Charles was a discharged soldier, who had suffered for many years with heart disease. He was 36 years of age.
His funeral was held at Gloucester Old Cemetery on 2 January 1919, attended by family members and work colleagues. His wife was not listed amongst the mourners but sent a wreath from ‘loving wife and little son’. Her absence can almost certainly be explained by the imminent birth of their second son. Charles’ remains were interred in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
There is evidence to suggest that Selina Smart re-married in Gloucester in 1921, to a David Stoddart. A recently released Pension Record Card indicates that Charles’ mother, Elizabeth, applied for and was granted a Dependant’s Pension, of five shillings a week in July 1919.
Researched by Graham Adams 15 April 2020