Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Corporal Charles Wood (693)

1887 –11/11/1918

Air Mechanic, Royal Flying Corps/RAF, served in WWI; died on Armistice Day 1918

  View CWGC record

Relatives

Alice Jordan — sister

• Janice Boakes

Charles was born in Berkhamsted in 1887. He was one of four children born to Alfred and Elizabeth Wood. The family lived at 206 High Street where Alfred ran a tobacconist shop. Charles joined the Army on 10th January 1907; prior to this he had been a chauffeur. He married Rose Grover on 23rd January 1912 in Islington, London. Rose was also born in Berkhamsted.

When war broke out in 1914, Charles was quickly mobilised as part of the British Expeditionary Force and went out to France on 10th August that year. Charles and Rose’s first child – Alfred Charles – was born a few months later on 31st October 1914, in Berkhamsted. Their second son – Arthur Vivian – was born in Edinburgh on 13th June 1916. The army records for Charles no longer exist but it is likely he was wounded and sent home because he joined the Royal Flying Corps as 2nd class Air Mechanic on 27th October 1916. The RFC papers state that he had a wound to his left forearm. He worked as an Engine Fitter. On 1st April 1917 he was promoted to 1st class Air Mechanic and was transferred to the Royal Air Force when it was formed on 1st April 1918. On 25th May 1918 their third child, Alice May, was born in Birmingham.

Corporal Charles Wood died on 11th November 1918, Armistice Day, in Hounslow Military Hospital. He died of pneumonia following influenza. He left behind a widow and three children under the age of five. They lived at 39 Gossoms End.

Alice Jordan

07/03/1920 –11/12/1920

Brother of Charles Wood, and wife of William Jordan

Relatives

Corporal Charles Wood (693) — brother

William Alfred Jordan — husband

Wood — other

• Melanie Hilton

Alice Jordan (née Wood)

Alice, born 7 March 1852, was the eldest child of Alfred and Elizabeth Wood who are buried in plot 203. Alice lived with her family, including her brother Charles, who is also buried in this plot, in the High Street, over her father’s tobacconist shop.

On 16 September 1896 Alice married William Henry Jordan at St Peter’s, Berkhamstead. William was a widower from Bermondsey and was employed as a thermometer maker. After their marriage they lived in Bermondsey where their first son, Cecil Henry was born in 1898.

In 1900 they moved to Kensal Green where William Alfred was born in 1901. Alice returned to Berkhamsted to have her two sons baptised at St Peter’s 5 February 1901.

Alice died on the 11 December 1920.

William Alfred Jordan

d.03/03/1923

Son of Alice and William Jordan; died age 22 years

Relatives

Alice Jordan — wife

• Melanie Hilton

William Alfred Jordan (1901-1923)

William was born in January 1901 in Willesden to William James Jordan, a thermometer maker and Alice (née Wood). He was baptised in Berkhamstead, his mother’s birthplace, along with his elder brother Cecil Henry 5 February 1901.

William died in 1923, aged only twenty two years and was buried with his uncle Charles Wood and mother Alice.