Inns of Court Officer Training Corps
Charles Terry was one of a substantial number of men who had gone to live and work in far flung places of the British Empire yet returned to fight for their homeland during the Great War
Charles Warwick Terry was born in Penge, London SE on 28 February 1880, the son of Henry Warwick and Edith Mary Terry, of Dunedin, Howard Road, South Norwood, London SE and later of Ravenswood, Battledown, Cheltenham.
Prior to the war he had emigrated to Rhodesia and was manager of the Shamva Mine, in what is now Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe; this was a gold mine.
There is a Medal Rolls Index Card for Charles Terry and this shows that he was a Company Quartermaster Sergeant (number MR21) in the Rhodesia National Regiment (RNR). It also notes RE (Royal Engineers). Possibly this was Charles’ intended unit following completed of his training at Officers’ Training Corps. Given his occupation as a mining engineer this would seem logical.
Charles’ Service Record has survived. When he attested for service for the duration of war on 19 July 1918 he stated that he was a widower and that he was discharged from the RNR in February 1918. He was posted to the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps, at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, on 20 July. On 30 October 1918 he was admitted to the Inns of Court Detention Hospital (King’s Road, Berkhamsted) with breathing difficulties. He died there, of pneumonia, following influenza, on 5 November 1918, aged 38: his relatives were present.
This was the second Great War fatality in the family as Charles’ brother Frank Goodrich Terry, was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland, when commanding the destroyer HMS Fortune, which was sunk by gunfire during the night action with the loss of all but one of the ship’s company
Charles Terry was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 10 February 2013
(Acknowledgement to ‘Leaving All that was Dear — Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)