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Charles Norris Died 15th November 1917
Charles was born in 1892 in Wokingham, to father James and mother Charlotte. He was the fifth born and had six siblings, three brothers, including possibly a twin (Arthur) and three sisters. By 1911, at the age of 22, Charles had become a domestic gardener and his father a cowman. His parents lived at Keep Hatch Lodge, Wokingham in 1911.
Charles joined the 8th Battalion in the Devonshire Regiment around 1914. The 8th (Service) Battalion formed at Exeter on 19 August 1914 and attached as Divisional Troops to 14th (Light) Division. In May 1915, the battalion left Division and landed at Le Havre on the 26th July 1915. The battalion then moved with the Division to Italy in November 1917, the time of Charles’s death. This does not correspond with the place of his grave, which is situated in Courtrai in Belgium. Servicemen, were often separated from their regiments as the war progressed, following an injury or bout of illness.
Name: NORRIS
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Devonshire Regiment
Unit Text: 8th Bn.
Date of Death: 15/11/1917
Service No: 33610
Grave/Memorial Reference: C. 1.Cemetery: KORTRIJK (ST. JAN) COMMUNAL CEMETERY.
Courtrai (now Kortrijk) was in German hands for most of the First World War. In April 1915, its railway junction was severely damaged by Allied airmen and on 16 October 1918, the town was entered by the 12th Royal Irish Rifles. St. Jean (now St. Jan) Cemetery was largely used and extended by the Germans, who erected a screen wall bearing the names of the dead by nationalities. (The German Extension is in the commune of Heule.) In November 1918, No.44 Casualty Clearing Station was posted at Kortrijk for a week, and it was followed for a period of eight months by No.62. These two units made a new plot in the south-west part of the cemetery, in which Commonwealth soldiers were buried.
Keep Hatch Lodge, Wokingham, Berkshire