| Date of birth: | July 1880 |
| Place of birth: | South Stoneham, Southampton |
| Service No.: | 4866 |
| Rank: | Sergeant |
| Regiment: | Household Cavalry and Cavalry of the Line |
| Battalion: | 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s Own) |
| Died: | 31st October 1914 aged 34 years |
| Death location: | West Flanders, Belgium |
Life before the War
Charles John Henwood was born in South Stoneham, Southampton, in July 1880.
In January 1904 he married Louisa Fleming in South Stoneham. Louisa was born in 1880. She was adopted at nine months by Timothy Edson, a Milk Carter, born 1839 in Shere, Surrey and Jessie Edson, born 1850 in Knowlesley, Lancashire; the Edson’s lived in Swaythling Road, Swaythling, Southampton.
On the 1911 census Charles and Louisa had two children, Charles aged 5 and Ernest aged nine months. Charles senior was working as a Groom/Domestic for a Miller. They lived at Woodmill Cottage, Woodmill Lane, Swaythling, Southampton.
Louisa died aged 56 in December 1937. Their son Ernest died in June 1941 and Charles junior in September 1965.
Regimental Badge
Flanders
Service History
Charles enlisted in Winchester. He was a Sergeant in the 5th Dragoon Guards of the Household Cavalry (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) and Cavalry of the Line.
He was killed in action during the Battle of Messines (1914) which was fought from 12th October to 2nd November 1914 between German and British troops as part of the ‘Race to the Sea’, between the river Douve and the Comines–Ypres canal.
Charles is memorialised at Ypres on Panel 5 of the Menin Gate, West Flanders, Belgium. He is also memorialised on the Southampton Cenotaph and the World War One tablet inside St Mary’s Church, South Stoneham, Southampton.
He was entitled to the 1914-1915 Star Medal, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
| Researcher: | Bridgett Vane |
| Published: | 30th June 2015 |
| Updated: | Insert dates here |
If you have any additional information about the person named above please complete the Comments section below.
My Auntie Birgit Hawkins (nee Henwood) has been researching our family and she is the youngest daughter of Charles John Henwood son- also named Charles.I am one of the daughters of Gerda Hobbs (nee Henwood) who was the eldest daughter of Charles’s son Charles.