BOMBARDIER CHARLES HENRY CALE
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
2ND NOVEMBER 1916 AGE 27
BURIED: CONTAY BRITISH CEMETERY, FRANCE
In 1911 Charles Clerk had been in clerk with Lyons Caterers in West London. His parents were the caretakers of the Froebel Institute in Colet Gardens, West Kensington. They had three children but Charles was their only son. Charles' father, Charles Frederick Cale, signed for his son's inscription, its plain truthfulness making it very affecting.
We hear much at Remembrance time of men 'giving their lives', or 'laying them down'; the language somehow making what happened easier for us to hear. The Cales tell it to us straight - their son was very cast down at the idea of going to the Front - whether he was returning or going for the first time we can't tell - but he was firmly committed to doing his duty. He served with B Battery, 83rd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, a trench mortar battery. In the autumn of 1916 they were on the Somme. Cale died of wounds in the Casualty Clearing Station at Contay on 2 November 1916. There is no record of the circumstances of his death.