London England

Blue file of documents about Sapper C V Haynes. || My grandfather Charles Henry Valentine Haynes was born in Mill Street, Wantage, on Valentine's Day 1889. He was a carpenter who married Maud Wilkins, a servant, on October 2, 1915 at Wantage Parish Church. Charles enlisted in the territorials on June 7, 1916 and served in the Royal Engineers. His records tell the story of his war service until 1917 when he was gassed, probably in the Ypres Salient. He was discharged on March 1, 1918 for being o longer physically fit for war service. His personnel service record was kept in an old biscuit tin and has now been preserved by his granddaughter. Charles died on April 16, 1949, aged 60, having suffered problems with his lungs and high blood pressure.

Company framed photograph. Caption title above frame: Machine Gun Corps Cadet Btn., Pirbright March 1917. Text inscribed on photograph itself: C.Coy, No. 2 Cadet BTN, 2nd course, March 1917. Photograph of Tom Henry Alexander in uniform. Photograph of the Alexander family when Tom was a boy. || Tom Henry Alexander, born January 1898, joined the Artists Rifles, which was attached to the 2nd London Regiment (part of the RN division). He was posted to France in 1917, and killed in action on October 30 1917 whilst attacking two concrete German machine gun emplacements, thigh deep in mud at Passchendaele. They were hit by a 100 yard sq artillary barrage, and casualties were approximately 80 per cent. Tom was sent to carry a message detailing the carnage, and was hit by a fragment to the head and died instantly. The following night, under cover of darkness, the machine gun positions were captured without loss of life by eleven men and one officer. The battle was won approximately four days later. This happened near to the Poelkapelle Road during the attack on Varlet Farm. His family never recovered from his loss.