CHARLES MARKHAM WESTBROOK

Laid to rest at the Field of Honour

CHARLIE

Born: 1923, Suffolk.

Died: 20th March 1943; age: age: 19; died from a self inflicted Gun Shot Wound to the chest, at 42, The Plain, Epping, Essex. Killed himself whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed. Post Mortem ordered.

Inquest held on the 24th March 1943.

Residence: 28, Richmond Road, Ipswich.

Occupation: Lorry Driver.

Rank: Rifleman; Service Number: 6923707.

Regiment: The Rifle Brigade, Prince Consort’s Own, 70th Battalion.

Grave Reference:

C.31.31.

Ipswich Old Cemetery,

Ipswich.

Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Charles Westbrook & Mabel Westbrook, of Ipswich.

Father: Charles Westbrook, born 1881, Fulham, Middlesex – died 1935, Ipswich, a Boot Repairer.

Mother: Mabel Maud M. Westbrook (nee Markham), born 1887, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

Photograph and family information courtesy of Gillian:

The day they got the news. My grandmother, who had been widowed in 1935, was at a family wedding reception of a cousin at the Westgate Ward Social Club in Prospect Street Ipswich. My mother, then 15, was also at the wedding as were, I am sure, other sisters. My mum remembers either a policeman or someone from the army coming to call my mother out of the party to tell her Charlie had been killed at his barracks by the ‘accidental discharge of a firearm’. To this day, we do not know what happened. My grandmother, like too many others, never got over it. 

Remembrance Day – Charlie, the Boy Who Never Came Home