Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles was gassed in France in May 1918 and was then evacuated to Horton War Hospital, Epsom UK.
On 27th June 1918 he married Bridget Hughes (from Portlaw in Ireland) at the Chelsea (London) registry office and a child was conceived from that marriage, that child was my mother Kathleen Olive Hughes. Prior to the birth of Kathleen, Charles was repatriated to Melbourne, Australia in January 1919 and little is known about him after that (to date). His wife Bridget wrote to the Australian Army Records in Canberra in 1924 seeking his whereabouts as she had not heard from him since he had been repatriated, however, through oral family history, we understand that Charles had written to her and remitted child support payments which were intercepted by Bridget's mother who kept the payments but destroyed his letters as she wished to have no family connections to a "colonial" Australian serviceman. Bridget apparently never saw or heard from Charles again, nor he from her as far as we know. Bridget subsequently married a Doctor J. Glynn of London, who I scarcely knew as my stepfather as he died when I was very young. Sad to think that Charles may have thought he had been abandoned by Bridget after returning to Australia, and he never saw his child, and Bridget must have thought Charles had abandoned her. I am presently researching their part of our family history and if anyone has information that may help it would be greatly appreciated, thank you in Memory of Charles and Bridget.