Charles Rummery

Rank: Private

Regiment: King’s Own Scottish Borderers

Parents: Mr William & Caroline Rummery (nee Blackford)

Grandmother: Mrs Rummery

Address: 2 Albion Street, Halton, Hastings

Other Info: At the Front. According to CWGC, Charles later was promoted to Sergeant and he served in the 12th Battalion, Royal Scots Regiment. He died on 3rd May 1917 and is remembered at the Arras Memorial, Bay 1 & 2.

An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 21st November 1914 reads “Mrs Rummery, of 2 Albion Street, Halton, has just received a letter from her nephew, Private C. Rummery, ‘A’ Company, K.S.O.B (13th Brigade), with the British Expeditionary Force. He says:

“We are getting plenty of cigarettes and tobacco now, but at one time we could not get a smoke at all, and I was longing for one. We have had a lot of hard fighting, but, thank God, I am still alive and well, although we never know the minute. I have been hit four times with shrapnel shell, one piece knocked a hole in my boot.

Our regiment has taken part in all the leading battles; we have ; we have always been in the thick of it. I have lost nearly all my chums, and we have lost some of our officers, whom we all like.

Our officers have shown great bravery, but, thank God, we can still keep up the reputation of our forefathers, and I am sure a gamer lot of lads never went into battle.

It is pitiful to see the poor people here, who are sometimes amongst the shot and shell, and driven from their houses. It is a funny thing, but most of our great battles take place on Sundays. We have a lot of hardships to endure, such as long marches and digging trenches, and sometimes laying in dirty, muddy trenches for a week”.

Published: November 1914 and December 1914

Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.