GUNNER CHARLES DOUGLAS MOORE
CANADIAN GARRISON ARTILERY
19TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 30
BURIED: PETIT-VIMY BRITISH CEMETERY, FRANCE
Charles Moore sounds like real character and full marks to his mother, Sarah Moore, who chose his inscription, for conveying this to us so vividly. Born in Bethnal Green London in 1888, Moore was one of her eight children. Her husband, Joseph, was a self-employed cabinet maker, and she worked with him as a French polisher.
Aged 14 in 1901, Charles Moore was living at home and working as a van guard lad. By the time of the 1911 census he had emigrated to Canada. He enlisted on the outbreak of war and signed his attestation form in Valcartier, Quebec on 22 September 1914.
His complete military file has been digitised by the Canadian Government. It reveals that he was 5'4" tall, with a 37" chest, dark hair, hazel eyes and with 'slight scars on index, ring and little finger left hand', and on his right hand too.
His record sheet shows him to have been no angel. On the 28 August 1916, he was sentenced to fourteen days Field Punishment No. 1 for, 'failing to comply with an order and insubordinate language to an N.C.O.'. And on 18 March 1917 to Field Punishment No.2 for 'when on active service failing to comply with an order of an N.C.O.'. His medical record shows him being hospitalised in October 1915 with 'V.D.S.' Venereal Disease Syphilis.
Moore served with the Canadian Anti-Aircraft Battery and was killed on 19 September 1917. The war diary's entry for the day records:
'Allied planes seen 52, hostile 25, engaged 21, over 12, weather clear, visibility fair, right centre section in front of Souchez shelled.'
Moore was presumably in the right centre section.
[I am grateful to the staff at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for drawing my attention to this inscription.]