Charles William Gidlow-Jackson was born on the 30th April 1887 in Oldham.
He lived at Rockwood Hall in Chorley – his father (also called Charles) being recorded on the 1901 Census as a Colliery Proprietor. Charles (Junior) was on the 1911 Census as a Visitor / Student, aged 23, at 5 Castle Hill in the village of Seaton in Devon.
He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on the 5th September 1914 but enlisted with the Chorley Pals a few days later on the 17th September. He was transferred to the Royal Engineers around March 1915 and his medal index card (held in the National Archives) indicates he was in France from October 1915 – duly qualifying for the 1914-15 Star.
He left his unit suffering from Gastritis on the 28th January 1916, joining the School of Military Engineering at Chatham on the 7th July 1916 before being attached to the Royal Engineers Services, Lincolnshire Coast Defences in March 1917.
He saw active service again in France, being wounded by a machine gun bullet on the 25th March 1918. After recovering from his wounds, Charles joined the Royal Engineers Reserve Training Centre at Christchurch on the 29th April 1918. He saw further action overseas before being discharged from the Army on the 21st August 1919, last serving in Archangel in Northern Russia as a Captain with 38th Royal Engineers Works Company.
Interestingly, after Russia he must have taken some time out in sunnier climes for he is recorded as a passenger landing at Liverpool on the 26th October 1920; he was returning from Las Palmas in Tenerife, aboard the S.S. Aquila, giving his address in the ship’s manifest as 64 Porchester Road in Bournemouth.
He married a lady by the name of Abbott at St. George’s Church in Hanover Square, London during the summer of 1925.
