Private Charles Paston, 11th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action on 9th August 1917 and was the third of three brothers to be killed in the war. He was born in Temple Balsall on 17th June 1887 and was the sixth of eight children (three sons, five daughters) born to parents George (a labourer) and Ann (née Treadgold) who had married in 1876.
The family had left Temple Balsall by 1891 and were living in Burton Hastings. They had moved to Bulkington by 1901 and were still there in 1911. Charles became a bricklayer’s labourer and married Bessie Goode in 1912. The couple’s twin sons, Kenneth and Wilfred, were born in Bulkington on 5th July 1914.
Kenneth died in the spring of 1915, shortly before his first birthday. Wilfred married Nmeme Kathleen Hewitt in 1937 and the couple appear to have had two children. Their only son was named Kenneth, presumably after his father’s twin brother.
Charles volunteered for war service, enlisting in Nuneaton, and arriving in the Balkans in July 1915. He was killed in action and has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial and on Nuneaton war memorial. Having moved away from his birthplace as a child, his name doesn’t appear on Temple Balsall war memorial.
If you have any further information, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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