‘A’ Battery, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Brigade
Charles Edward Chainey was born at Blockley (then part of Worcestershire) in December 1886, one of fourteen children born to William Frederick Chainey (landlord of the Crown Hotel) and his wife Sarah.
He worked on the land and emigrated to Canada in March 1910. On 20 September 1914 he enlisted into the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery at Valcartier, Quebec and left Canada for Britain on the following 3 October.
After training in England he was posted to France on 20 July 1915 and served in the field until wounded on 1 December 1917, during the powerful German counter-attack at Cambrai. He suffered two gun shot wounds to his left thigh and superficial wounds to his face and right hand.
He was treated by 61st Field Ambulance and No 55 Casualty Clearing Station before being sent to 16th General Hospital at Le Treport. Evacuation by hospital ship to England followed on 11 December 1917 and two days later he was admitted to Crag Head Hospital, Boscombe, near Bournemouth.
On 15 December he was reported as dangerously ill: he was suffering from infected wounds and tetanus. His condition progressively deteriorated and he died on the morning of 22 December 1917, aged 31.
He was brought home to Blockley for burial in a family grave. The headstone also commemorates his brother, Private Lionel Wilson Chainey, who was killed in action twenty one days earlier, whilst serving with the 1st Otago Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force and is commemorated on the Butts New British Cemetery (NZ Memorial), Polygon Wood.