PRIVATE CHARLES OWEN
BORDER REGIMENT
27TH JULY 1916 AGE 18
BURIED: DRANOUTRE MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Charles Owen was the fourth of his mother's five children. Born and brought up in Hull, where his father was a brewer's engineer, he joined up in Hull and served originally with the East Yorkshire Regiment. He transferred to the 5th Battalion Border Regiment and was killed in action near Loker, 11 km south of Ypres, on 27 August 1916. This is the date the War Graves Commission gives for his death but other reports say he was killed on the 26th.
Charles' elder brother, Walter William Owen, enlisted in August 1914 on the outbreak of war and was killed in action in France on 12 April 1917 aged 23. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
After the war, the boys' mother, Clara Selina Owen, went to live in Lewisham in South London. It's possible that her husband went with her but there is no evidence either way. It was Clara who chose the inscription for her "darling brave boy".