Charles Giffard Jeffery
A Deck Hand with H.M. Trawler Agile, Charles died on 27th of April 1917 at the age of 23.
Charles was born at Lowestoft on 16 March 1894, a son of Frederick Ernest and Alice Elizabeth Jeffery. Charles was baptised at Saint Peter’s Church, Kirkley, on 20 April 1894. At that time his family lived at 78 Saint Leonard’s Road, and this would be Charles’ home for the rest of his life. Note, when Charles was baptised his names were given as Giffard Charles. Charles’ father died in 1894. From 6 June 1898 Charles was a pupil at Kirkley School. In 1906 Charles’ mother married William Hargrave.
Charles joined the Royal Naval Reserve on 29 August 1916 and served on the trawler Agile.
On 27 April 1917 the Agile struck a mine three miles east of the Sunk Head Light Vessel, Harwich. Charles was one of three crew who were killed.
Charles life didn’t start well as his father (and of course Franks), died in a shipwreck somewhere between the Humber and the Wash on 11 February 1894, a month before he was born. Their mother Alice remarried in 1906 to James Hargrave - that is why he is shown as living at 78 St Leonard’s Road and he was of course their step father.
In 1912, Scoresby Routledge and his wife Katherine planned a trip on their vessel Mana, to Easter Island. They had hoped to use a number of fishermen from Lowestoft for many of the crew, but eventually only Charles (then 18 or 19), joined them. The expedition set sail early in 1913, returning in June 1916, and is described in Katherine Routledge’s book “The Mystery of Easter Island”. Further information can be gleaned from “Among Stone Giants” by Jo Anne Van Tilburg. There are references to Charles in both books.
Returning in the midst of WW1, having already lost his step father, and soon to lose his older brother, Charles joined the Royal Naval Reserve and served on HM Trawler “Agile”, losing his life when it was destroyed by a mine off Harwich in April 1917.
His mother had therefore lost two of her sons and her second husband to the war.
(With thanks to Mike Jeffrey for the additional information)
linked
Charles Jeffery
78
St Leonards Road
Lowestoft
United Kingdom
52.465346820259, 1.7404584527439
Comments
Wow. Fascinating story…
Wow. Fascinating story. Extraordinary times, and extraordinary tragedy.
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