Charles Grigsby was born in Boughton Monchelsea, a village to the south of Maidstone, Kent, in the summer of 1878. His parents were farm labourer William Grigsby and his wife, Elizabeth, and he was one of four children. Charles’ mother passed away when he was just three years old, and William married again – to another Elizabeth. They had six children – half-siblings to Charles.

Charles falls off the radar for a few years – his First World War service records suggest that he had enlisted with the East Kent Regiment, and so may have been serving abroad at the time of the 1891 and 1901 censuses.

In 1904 he was back in Kent, however, where he married Henrietta Harpum. The daughter of a soldier, Henrietta had been born in Shoeburyness, Essex, but the family had moved to Frindsbury, Kent, not long afterwards.

The 1911 census found the Grigsbys living in the village of Eccles, near Aylesford. Charles was working as a blacksmith’s striker at the local cement works, and they had their Henrietta’s nephew, George, living with them at the time the record was taken.

When war was declared, Charles stepped up again to play his part. He enlisted on 24th August 1914, and was assigned to the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment). Private Grigsby’s service records confirm that he was 5ft 6.5ins (1.69m) tall, and weighed 129lbs (58.5kg). He had brown hair, blue eyes and tattoos on both arms.

Tragically, Henrietta died not long after her husband joined up, although the exact date and cause of her passing is lost to time. Assigned to the 6th (Service) Battalion, Charles was, by this time, based in Hythe, on the Kent coast.

Private Grigsby’s time back in the army was to be a short one, however. He was admitted to Shorncliffe Military Hospital in January 1915, suffering from bronchial pneumonia, and is was this lung condition that was to take his life just weeks later. He passed away on 22nd February 1915, at the age of 35 years old.

Charles Grigsby was brought back to Aylesford by his siblings. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Churchyard. It is likely that he was buried alongside Henrietta, although the exact location of his grave is not longer known. Instead, he is commemorated on a joint headstone in the First World War section of the graveyard.

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