SAMPFORD, Charles Raymond
| Service Number: | 2927 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 26 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 48th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Wyalong, New South Wales, Australia, 1894 |
| Home Town: | Subiaco, Nedlands, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Subiaco State School, Western Australia |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 18 September 1918 |
| Cemetery: |
Jeancourt Communal Cemetery Extension Jeancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Jeancourt, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Subiaco Fallen Soldiers Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 26 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2927, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1) | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 2927, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: '' | |
| 5 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 2927, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), HMAT Hororata, Fremantle | |
| 18 Sep 1918: | Involvement Private, 2927, 48th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2927 awm_unit: 48 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1918-09-18 |
Help us honour Charles Raymond Sampford's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Charles Sampford was the youngest of a father and his three sons who enlisted in the AIF. They were the only men of this surname in the whole of the AIF. All enlisted in Western Australia though the boys were born in the Wyalong and Temora regions of the Riverina in NSW.
The two youngest sons Charles Raymond Sampford and his brother William Miles Sampford both enlisted the same day and were given the consecutive regimental numbers of 2927 and 2928 in the 16th Battalion AIF. Both transferred to the 48th Battalion during the doubling of the AIF in Egypt after the evacuation of the Gallipoli.
Charles survived the heavy fighting at Pozieres but his brother William was posted missing on the 6th August 1916 and was not confirmed as killed in action until May 1917. Charles was also in the front line with the same battalion when his brother disappeared.
Charles was court martialled on the 6th September 1916, for leaving his post from 12.05pm until 12.50pm on the 1st September 1916. For his 45 minute disappearance he was awarded 10 years penal servitude in prison and fined 735 days pay. He was sent to a military prison in France a few weeks later, and his sentence was reduced to 2 years hard labor by Major-General H.V.Cox, the CO of the 4th Division.
Sampford was accidently injured whilst working with a carrying party on the 9th May 1917, when he fractured an ankle and suffered a contusion to left knee. Apparently he was lifting a large baulk of timber with 30-40 other men after almost getting it raised to the shoulders of each man it fell striking his left knee and left foot. He was sent back to the Military Prison at Havre on the 7th July 1917, and was released from prison on 15th June 1918; the remainder of his sentence remitted, and entrained for his unit, rejoining the 48th Battalion in the field on the 20th June 1918.
Sampford was killed in action on the 18th September 1918.
In the Red Cross Wounded an Missing files at the War Memorial, 4792 Pte.James P.Davis 48th Bn AIF stated of Sampford, "Medium height, dark, very cool person, when I first saw him the fingers of one hand had all been blown off by machine gun fire. Soon afterwards he received a machine gun burst in the forehead and was killed outright. He was about 15 yards from the Hun Line. Locality near St.Quentin in the 18th September stunt. Casualty occurred about 9am. COOK of Fremantle, DUDLEY from Collie, LENANE of Broken Hill, and I carried him to Dean Copse to where we had been instructed to carry the dead for burial. B.H.Q. were then behind Dean Copse. He was left there for burial, particulars of which are not known."
Sampford was buried in Jeancourt Communal Cemetery Extension (Plot III, Row D, Grave No. 14), France.