1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Charles Nelson Walton Aston was the son of Charles (a railway porter) and Elizabeth Aston and was born in Gloucester in the second quarter of 1877.
At the time of the 1891 Census Charles was aged 13 and a ‘milk deliverer’, living at Millbrook Street, Gloucester. Ten years later, at the time of the 1901 Census, he was married and living at 106 Millbrook Street and was employed as a railway employee. He had married Nellie May Lea in the third quarter of 1900.
At census time in 1911 the couple were living at 83 Alfred Street, Gloucester and had two children (Bessie, age nine and Charles age two: one child had died: a further son, Leslie Nelson was born in 1913). Charles had now become a motor tramway man, employed by the local corporation.
Apart from a Medal Index Card (MIC) at the National Archives, no documentary evidence of his Army service career has survived. Fortunately the report of his funeral in the Cheltenham Chronicle of 20 May 1916 does reveal some interesting information.
Prior to the start of the Great War, Private Aston was a member of the National Reserve and on the outbreak of war he joined the 3rd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, with the Special Reserve. On 11 November 1914 he was part of a draft of men designated for the 1st Battalion. He was subsequently invalided home but the exact timing of this is unknown.
He was repatriated to the ranks of the 3rd Battalion, based in the Medway area of Kent. His indisposition eventually led to his admission to Gravesend Hospital where he died from ‘an internal complaint’ on 10 May 1916, age 33. A recently released Pension Record Card states that death was due to ‘carcinoma contracted whilst on active service’. According to the above newspaper he carried the rank of sergeant and this may well have been an acting or temporary rank, not confirmed by the MIC.
His remains were conveyed from Gravesend to Gloucester, escorted by a party from the 3rd Glosters and they were met at the station by the Chief Tramway Inspector and four motormen who escorted the coffin to All Saints Church for his funeral, which was a semi-military affair concluded at Gloucester Old Cemetery, where he was interred to the sound of a volley of shots and the Last Post. A standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave.
At the time of his death his wife and children lived at 8 Sidney Street, Gloucester.
Researched by Graham Adams 18 December 2020 (revised)