L/Cpl 32232 Charles Arthur Auger Readdy (MM)

• Age: 21
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: East Lancashire Regiment
• Died on Saturday 22nd September 1917
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 77-79 163A

Charles was born in the Kensington area of Liverpool in early 1896 the son of George Henry Readdy and his wife Rosa Ann (nee Auger) had married in St. Mary the Virgin, Liverpool, on 30^th October 1889.  His father was born in London and his mother in Bristol. He was baptised in St. Philip’s on 18^th March. His parents were then living at 83 Tweed Street; his father was a professor of music. Charles had an older brother George, and younger sisters Dorothy, Elsie, and Ethel. Sadly, three babies died in infancy: Rosa, and twins Emily and Violet.

In 1894 the family were living at 6 Exley Street.  By 1901 the family was living at 83 Tweed Street. His younger brother Eric died in 1906, age 8. The family were then living at 5 Ridley Road, Fairfield. 

His father was the organist at St. Anne’s church, Stanley. He died in 1910, when Charles was 14 and his youngest child was 4.   

In 1911, widowed mother Rosa Ann is head of household at 22 Liverpool Road. Charles is 15, listed as an attendant in the Cotton Exchange. All his siblings are in the home, together with two boarders, who are both police constables.

In late 1914, with the two brothers away at war, his oldest sister Dorothy, still only a young teenager, advertised her services as a pianiste; the family were then living at 22 Leopold Road, Liverpool.

Soon after war was declared, Charles enlisted in the 17^th Battalionof the King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 17704 and went to France on 7^th November 1915. He was subsquently transferred to the 8^th Bn East Lancashire Regiment. He was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery whilst with the East Lancashire Regiment, the award being mentioned in the London Gazette on 18/07/1917. He was  killed in action on 22/09/1917, aged 21.

Charles' body was not recovered and his name is recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.  

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

His Mother placed a moving In Memoriam notice in the Liverpool Echo on 23rd September 1918

READDY - In loving memory of CHARLES A. A. READDY, age 21 years, awarded the military medal in the spring, and was killed in action, September 22, 1917. (For he was my beloved son.) - Mother.

His older brother George served in France with the Royal Army Medical Corps, and later had a son he named Charles. Sadly, another son, Sgt Arthur Phillip Readdy, was killed, age 21, in 1944 serving with the R.A.F.  He is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

His mother lived until 1959, and died at age 91, having lost a son and a grandson in the world wars.

Charles is commemorated on the following Memorials:

St. Anne’s C of E Church, Stanley, 

St. Paul’s War Memorial, Stoneycroft.

We currently have no further information on Charles Arthur Auger Readdy, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.