Batten, Charles A.

Description

Charles A. Batten was born in Rye on 19 Apr 1896. His father William H. was a prominent Rye builder and his mother Catherine was a homemaker, both were born in England. John had seven siblings and the family lived on School St.

He loved to play the violin and sang in the choir. He always attended Sunday school at Christ’s Church where he once received a gold cross for four years perfect attendance. He was a graduate of the Rye High School and had passed a year at Columbia.

By all accounts Charles seemed to be very popular with his friends, attending numerous parties and events before enlisting with the British Army in WWI. At the time of his enlistment he was employed as a clerk at the Grand Central Terminal.

Charles A. Batten enlisted with the British Army in Canada on September 25th, 1917. He was a member of D Company, 14th Platoon, 42nd Battalion, Royal Highlanders, the famous Black Watch Regiment, after having been rejected by the American Army several times.

The 42nd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada), CEF, was an infantry battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

The battalion recruited in and was mobilized at Montreal. The 42nd Battalion was authorized on 7 November 1914 and embarked for Great Britain on 10 June 1915.

It disembarked in France on 9 October 1915, where it fought as part of the 7th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division in France and Flanders until the end of the war. The battalion was disbanded on 15 September 1920.

Charles was a member of one of the machine gun crews of the regiment and was killed in action August 26, 1918, near Arras after the Germans had been forced out of the city, on August 28, 1918.

Before the action In which he met his death he had been gassed, suffered shell shock and had been In a hospital with pneumonia.

Charles is buried in France at the Vimy Memorial Cemetery. A stone and plaque to his memory is at Greenwood Union Cemetery.

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