Charles James Life

Baptised Charles James Life in Wheatley on 7 November 1886, son of Richard Henry Life, Putney-born grocer, draper, Relieving Officer, School Attendance Officer, Vaccination Officer, Infant Life Inspector and Collector for Poor Law Guardians, and Annie Elizabeth nee West, draper and sub-Registrar: they had married in Camberwell. They lived on High Street (now numbered 105) in 1891 and the father is mentioned in Kelly's Directory for 1899. They were still living on High Street in 1921. Charles was a brother of Frederick and Richard George Life. He attended Wheatley school in 1894 and received a Diocesan Prize in 1900. Took up a clerkship at Sutton's of Reading. His name appeared on the Roll of Honour carried in the Oxford Times of 26 September 1914, with mention ‘RNR'. Service number London Z/240: he had been a member of the R.N. Volunteer Reserve for ten months prior to entering the service on 26 September 1912, and re-entry 7 September 1914. In 1918 he was serving as a Leading Telegraphist. Awarded Victory and British War Medals.

He married Alice Hopgood on the Isle of Wight in 1918. He died in Brent, London in 1968. See also references to him in the Wheatley in a World at War chapter; and to his mother in the chapter Oxfordshire Women in World War 1.