DYER, Charles William

Charles was born 1891 in Newport to William & Ellen (nee COGGER) DYER who were living at 1 Lynn Cottage, Melbourne Street in Newport around the time of Charles’ death. Previously the family had lived at 7 Clarendon Street, Newport. Charles had worked at the Whitecroft County Asylum before the outbreak of war.

He joined the army at the outbreak of the war in 1914 & was deployed to France in 1915, serving continuously on the Western Front until his death. As part of a Royal Engineers Field Company, his role involved vital technical combat engineering tasks, such as constructing fortifications, maintaining bridges, & handling demolitions under fire

Charles was attached to the 12th (Eastern) Division during the First World War. He was killed in Action, aged 26, on Thursday, the 28th of March 1918, during the intense fighting of the German Spring Offensive (Operation Michael). Charles is buried in the Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery in France beneath a Commission Headstone bearing the Family Inscription: “GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” & rests alongside 588 of his First World War comrades, of whom 108 remain unidentified.

Charles is also remembered on the County & Newport Borough War Memorials.