Houghton, Charles W
Charles William Houghton
Son of John Pounds Houghton and Annie Marian Houghton née Tween
Born 17th April 1891 at Kew, Surrey
Educated at King's School, Canterbury, Kent
Employed as a clerk for the Royal Insurance Company.
He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on probation in the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment on the 9th July 1915 and was posted to the School of Instruction at Fort Pulbrook, Portsmouth on the 18th of August 1915 for training. However, on 29th Oct 1915 a summary of his progress concluded that he was not suitable for a leadership role in the army and, despite some improvements, a number of assessments were made as to his role as an officer which resulted in Major General F.S. Robb issueing instructions to the effect that Charles Houghton should not be retained as an officer and he therefore resigned his commission on the 29th of March 1916.
However, within a fortnight Charles Houghton enlisted at Westminster as a Rifleman 552951 with the 1/16th (County of London) Battalion (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), whilst living at Cambridge Road, Teddington, and after training at Winchester, he left for the front in July 1916 with a draft of reinforcements.
He remained in France for over a year and was killed in action in France on 16th December 1917, aged 26
Buried at Roclincourt Military Cemetery, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France (Plot: I. F. 19)
(See: Find A Grave Memorial# 16035087)
Listed on Teddington War Memorial
Listed on Richmond Upon Thames War Memorial
Listed on The King's School Canterbury Roll of Honour
This page is part of the Online WW1 War Memorial for Teddington developed by the History Group of The Teddington Society. Click on any photo for a higher resolution version. Please send any corrections or additional information by email to David Neller at DaveNeller@aol.com. Copyright for the material on this page rests with the contributor. Click to return to the Home page for the Online WW1 War Memorial for Teddington.