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Charles William SparryCharles William Sparry was born on 26 November 1894 in Leamington Hastings, Warwickshire, a small village north-east of Leamington Spa. His parents, John Sparry, a coachman, and Elizabeth née Price, originated from Worcestershire, and it seems likely that John's work led them to Frampton during the 1890s. The Sparry family lived on Perryway by 1911, Charles seemingly without work at the time of the census. In the following August, the Gloucester papers reported that Charles was one of several Frampton lads in trouble for scrumping pears from an orchard, the property of John James Broad who farmed at Advowsons. Frank Halling, David George Herbert, Charles William Sparry, Christopher Charles Fryer, Archibald Dunford, Sidney Charles Mills, Walter Harold Mills, Walter Wright and Wallace Rowles were all summoned and the first five were each fined 1s. to make an example of them, with the rest let off on a caution.
Charles joined the Territorial Force as a transport driver in the Army Service Corps. His early career was certainly focussed on horses, no doubt following the calling of his father and elder brother. As a territorial it is likely that he was part of the 61st (2nd South Midlands) Division, which left for France on 21 May 1916, and Charles would have been in the supply or ammunition trains responsible for keeping the forward units sufficiently provisioned for combat. His family recall being told that on one occasion his mate and his mate's horse were both killed, but Frampton servicemen, like most others, spoke only briefly of these terrible occurrences. Charles was later awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal and is commemorated on the plaque in the village hall. It is interesting to note that the medal roll lists in sequence the Territorial Force (TF) soldier numbers of those who must have joined with him, almost all of whom transferred together to the Regular Army on 1 September 1916, and were therefore given new soldier numbers, again in sequence. This exemplified the spirit and the commitment of the British Army at that time, working together within their units. Charles remained an absent voter throughout 1919 but was back in Frampton, and working as a groom, at the time of his marriage to Margaret Susan Kate Lawrence at St Luke the Less, Gloucester on 11 March 1920. Only a month later Charles started work at Cadbury’s, where he remained for over 25 years. The couple had two sons and four daughters. Charles William Sparry ended his days at the Old Vicarage Nursing Home in Frampton, dying in 1991 at the age of 97. |