BORN DOWNHAM MARKET, NORFOLK, 26/06/1888. SON OF CHARLES GROMMETT AND SARAH WALSH. ENLISTED BURY ST EDMUNDS, ON THE 22/10/1907. A PROFESSIONAL SOLDIER AND SERGEANT IN THE 1ST EAST YORKSHIRE BATTALION. MARRIED EDITH COBB, IN BEVERLEY, ON 01/12/1913. HE WAS WOUNDED IN THE THIGH, DURING THE BATTLE OF AISNE. DIED OF TETANUS, ON 27/09/1914, AGE 26. HIS WIDOW LIVED AT THIS ADDRESS IN BEVERLEY. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED THE HULL TIMES, ON 17/10/1914.
Charles enlisted in Bury St Edmunds in 1907 rising through the ranks to become sergeant at the outbreak of the war. He was specialising as a surveyor and frequently sent postcards to his younger brother Walter, to their family home in Downham Market. In one to his mother from Hull, in August 1914, he said: “I am with a Territorial Staff at the Station Hotel, cannot give you any address but will you write to Edith. Fondest love to you both. Yr Son Charlie.”
He went on to marry Edith Cobb on September 1, 1914, in Beverley, Yorkshire, before leaving for France five days later as a member of the 1st Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. Charles was part of the Expeditionary Force and on September 20 at the Battle of Aisne he was wounded in the thigh and was transported on a hospital train to St Nazaire but died of his wounds six days later. He is buried in St Nazaire Toutes-Aides Cemetery.
