John Charles Charity

John Charles and his elder sister Frances were born in Lincoln probably because their father, Joseph, was stationed there – he was a Private in the Lincolnshire Regiment. Soon after John’s birth however his mother came to live in Stamford. The Charitys belonged to the Methodist Church and John was baptised in the Stamford Circuit on 29th June 1898. In 1900 another son, Robert, was born in Stamford and the children and their mother were living at 5 St John’s Cottages, Cemetery Road in 1901.

By 1911 John’s father, Joseph, was an Army Pensioner, working as a rural postman and the family were living at 7 Torkington St. John Charles aged 12 was at school as were the younger children – Robert Tucker 10, Joseph Edward 7 and Grace Marion 5. Francis Alice 17 old was at home not working.

John was only 20 years old when he married Sarah Ann Lilley probably shortly before he enlisted in the 7th Lincs Regiment on 29th June 1918. He had been working at Blackstones and his address on enlistment was 10 Frisby’s Buildings. He served in France and Ireland and was still serving in France in 1919, by which time his home address was 2 Malting Yard, Water Street.

John and Sarah had a son and 4 daughters all born in the Stamford area between 1918 and 1929 but presumably they moved later because John died in Grimsby in 1981. According to an Ancestry Family Tree,one of their daughters moved to America and died in Delaware in 2004.