Christopher Robert Green

26259 Private Christopher Robert Green first enlisted with the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry after July 1916 when his appeal against conscription failed. Later he transferred to 9 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), Regimental No. 66836, Private. The railway station at Vichte, east of Ypres and Courtrai, was captured on 20 October 1918, and the village two days later. German positions across the Selle River had been attacked on 17 October; British forces crossed the river in fog on 20 October and pressed their advantage in the next few days against a disciplined German rearguard and retreat east. Christopher died on 25 October, Day 79 of the 100 Days Offensive. He is buried in Vichte Military Cemetery, Anzegem, West Flanders, Belgium (ref. I. A. 19).

Christopher was born in Headington in 1893, the second son of Henry Green, bricklayer, born also in Headington, in 1857/9, and Elizabeth Court, laundress, born in Oxford in 1855. In 1911 the family was living on Windmill Road, Headington Quarry, and Christopher was following his father as an apprentice bricklayer. He married Emily Alice Smith of Horspath in 1915 and when appeal was made to the Tribunal in 1916, he was licensee of the Cricketer's Arms, Littleworth. The license was transferred to Emily on 13 January 1919.