Current Information:

Age-22

44, Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich

Flavy-le-Martel Communal Cemetery, France

After the opening battles of the war at Mons on 23rd August, 1914 and Le Cateau on 26th August, the British Army (BEF), in conjunction with the French Army, began a retreat that took them all the way back to the River Marne, 200 miles to the south. With the Germans in hot pursuit they were forced to fight a series of rear guard actions as they fell back in extremely hot weather. The Great Retreat, as it became known, came to an end on 5th September, 1914 when the allied forces attacked along the River Marne and drove the Germans back to the River Aisne.

On 28th August, 1914, the 16th Lancers of 3 Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division had reached Jussy, from where, at 5am the next morning, 29th August, they were attacked and driven out by enemy’s infantry and machine-guns. Nevertheless they had managed to destroy the bridge across the Crozat canal after which they withdrew with the rest of 3 Cavalry Brigade to Chauny. One of their casualties during his incident was Charles Smith.