My grandfather, Charles Thomas Rogers, was a career soldier in the 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, rising to Staff Sergeant by the time he was discharged on 26th January 1920. He had joined as a private (regimental number 4870) sometime prior to 1904. As, so far, I have been unable to find him in the 1901 census I believe he may have joined the army prior to 1901 and have been out of the country on active service at the time of the census.
C.T. had been born on 10th September 1877 in Talbot Street, Leek, Staffordshire, the eldest son of Thomas Rogers & Martha Bainbridge. His first job appears to have been as an errand boy. In June 1904 when he was a corporal based at the 1st North Staffs barracks at Whittington, Staffs, he married Gertrude Ann Irish. At the time of the birth of his second son George Henry in July 1907 he was still a corporal at 81 West Square in Farnborough Hampshire. At some time in 1913 he was serving with the regiment in Ireland.
CT was wounded in October 1914 in the back and shoulder, spending the rest of the war back in the UK. The possibility seems to be that for some reason he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion of the North Staffs, which was a training regiment based in North East England. I have 2 postcards that he sent to his wife, one is a picture of his 2 sons and is dated 9th November 1915 and was posted in Wallsend. The second one is dated 11 Sept 1918 was posted in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland.
After the war he worked in a tobacconists warehouse and then in a tobacconists shop until his death on 17th February 1943 in Telegraph Street, Stafford. He left 2 sons, Charles Thomas William (my Uncle Bill), and my father George Henry.
For photos of the Rogers family click here
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