Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

9th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery

He was 33 and the son of David McGowan Alexander and Emily Frances Alexander, of 71, Frankfort Avenue, Dublin, Ireland.

Address-c/o Theosophical Society, Hunter Street, Sydney, New South Wales

Enlistment date 28 July 1915
Age at embarkation 32

Place of enlistment - Liverpool, New South Wales
Rank on enlistment-Lieutenant
Unit name - 35th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/52/1

Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A24 Benalla on 1 May 1916 [or 12th May?]-disembarked Plymouth, England 9th July 1916.

Rank from Nominal Roll Lieutenant

Unit from Nominal Roll 35th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour Circular
Had electrical [sic] charge of a gold mine at Ross, New Zealand. Later Science Master at Armidale College, New South Wales.

War service: Western Front

Promoted Lieutenant, 1 August 1916.

Proceeded overseas to France, 21 November 1916; posted for duty with Light Trench Mortar Battery, 15 January 1917.

He is remembered on the Dublin High School Great War Memorial

Charles Henry Alexander, Captain Trench Mortar battery, Australian Imperial Force 4th son of David McGowan Alexander, of 71, Frankfort Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin by his wife, Emily Frances, daughter of Francis Power Gahagan; born Dublin 29 December 1883; educated at The High School, and the Royal College of Science there, which he entered with a scholarship, and graduated as Engineer in Science in 1904; became a lecturer in Cawnpore, India, and afterwards at Knox College, Sydney, as Mathematical Master;

He took his Engineering degree in the College of Science. On the outbreak of the war he returned from Australia and received his commission. He received his Captaincy on the field.
Source: Irish Life Magazine, 27 July 1917 (David Power)

Enlisted July, 1915; obtained a commission the following December; returned to England; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from November, 1916, and was killed in action at Messines Ridge, 8 June, 1917.  Buried at St. Yves. His Colonel wrote:  “We were all very proud of your gallant son, for on many occasions he had distinguished himself by brave, cool action in time of great stress and danger.  He had had many narrow escapes, and it was the hope of us all he would be equally fortunate in the big operation in which he was engaged.  He had indeed seen through the worst part when the big attack was made, but was struck down on the 8th June.” 

 He was well known in the rowing and football circles in Dublin.

Some 69 past pupils of The High School, Dublin, died in The Great War. An impressive memorial and a beautiful stained glass window pay testament to their sacrifice.

CHARLES HENRY ALEXANDER, (about 1884 - 8.6.1917)
From Neutral Bay. Born at Rathgar in Ireland. At TAS as Mathematics Master from Easter to November 1913. Coached 1st Football XV. A.G. (Toby) Brett, Senior Prefect and 1st Football XV Captain in  1914 writes "He was in my opinion one of the finest people I have ever come in contact with. He was a great teacher and the younger boys thought the world of him." (letter 14.1.85). His salary was  175 pounds a year.

Served In 34th Battalion A.I.F. and 9th Trench mortar Battery and became a Captain. C.E.W. Bean records his death (Vol. 4 p.680) and quotes from a letter he wrote about British Airmen regaining the  upper hand in May 1917. Bill Gammage in The Broken Years quotes from 6 of his 15 letters home. Killed at Messines Belgium, aged 33.

Obituary: "The sad end came finally when he ventured over the parapet to take a photograph. He was shot, and died instantaneously. Those of us who knew Capt. Alexander, and were associated with  him at the School will at once pay him the tribute of him to be one of the most single winded, Christian men we have ever met. Almost too ready to himself he was not perhaps, a typical School Master, but he exercised a very strong influence by his remarkable simplicity and uprightness”.
Buried Belgium. 110 Toronto Avenue Cemetery, Warneton