T/Capt Charles Bernays, RAMC, attd 1 RWF

Charles Murchison Bernays was the only son of Dr Herbert Leopold and Sarah Jane Bernays of Old Charlton, Greenwich, and was born in 09/1880. He was educated at the Royal Medical Benevolent College in Epsom, Surrey, and St Thomas’s Hospital and in 1911 as a General Practitioner lived in Shirley, Birmingham, with his younger sister Gladys. Commissioned T/Lt on 02/11/1914, he landed in France in 05/1915 and in August was temporarily attached to 1 RWF as Medical Officer. He was mentioned in a Despatch (London Gazette 01/01/1916). On 24/09/1918 he relinquished his commission on account of ill health and was granted the honorary rank of Capt. The Times of 08/01/1920 reported his sudden death two days earlier, a few minutes after attending a casualty as a house surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Dover, as "due to haemorrhage, resulting from his having been badly gassed while on active service in 1917." He is buried with his parents in Charlton Cemetery, Greenwich, Section A Con Grave 158. His name is on the War Memorials of Shirley and Solihull. When the Solihull Memorial was unveiled on 21/06/1921, the names of the dead were read by his forst cousin once removed, Dr Adolphus Vaughan Bernays, a Solihull GP and JP and Alderman of Birmingham City Council.


Thanks to the invaluable help of Ms Maria Choules of the GWGC, the MoD has now (at last) approved Charles Bernays for commemoration as a casualty of the Great War. The CWGC has promised to send a Regional Supervisor to inspect and survey the grave.


Another Great War soldier rescued from oblivion. I thought you'd like to know.

John