Charles William Bertram Horne
Memorial: Chipping Sodbury Town Cross - Broad Street
Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Medals: 1939–45 Star, War Medal 1939–1945
Rank and number: Aircraft Man 2nd Class - wireless operator
Parents: Bertram and Ellen Horne
Home address: Red Lodge, Horse Street, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol
Pre-war occupation: Surveyor’s assistant and clerk
Date of birth: 26/03/1904
Date of death: 05/04/1945
Buried/Commemorated at: Originally buried in Medan Sumatra, his body was later transferred to Jakarta War Cemetery. He is commemorated inside St John’s church Old Sodbury, outside on the lychgate and on the Chipping Sodbury war memorial in the High Street.
Age: 41
Further information:
He attended Chipping Sodbury High School between 1913 and 1921 and later worked for his father who was a Civil Engineer and Surveyor. Charles was probably taken prisoner during 1942 when Sumatra fell to the Japanese. It is likely that he was in Glugur POW camp near Medan where he died after a protracted period of forced labour building roads and railways. Charles’s father was given permission to plant an oak sapling on the green by the side of the road in Old Sodbury which Charles had apparently grown from an acorn 12 years earlier. However, a beech tree grows in the centre of the green today.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://www.indischekamparchieven.nl/en/general-information/per-island/sumatra
Gloucester Citizen’ of 22nd April 1946