Photographs (2) of Lieutenant Charles St.John, c1915-1918

Studio portraits of Lieutenant Charles Reginald St.John in the uniform of the 7th Somerset Light Infantry. Charles was the second of the three St.John brothers who fought in World War. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry in May 1915 and spent six months on the Front Line in France before being injured in a fatal shell explosion.

'When war broke out in 1914, Charles was 28 years old. In 1915 he enlisted with the Somerset Light Infantry where he held the rank of Lieutenant. He spent six months in France in the trenches on the Front Line. A shell landed in the trench where he and five other soldiers were stationed, and exploded beside them. Four of the men were killed. Charles was blown out of the trench and for two or three days he was missing in action. He was found wandering in a state of shock, with shrapnel injuries to his head.  Charles was sent to the Officers’ Convalescent Home at Osborne House in the Isle of Wight. Once discharged, he was sent to Cheshire to help supervise in a munitions factory.' See Items of Interest: Lydiard at War by Frances Yeo

The photographs are held in an embossed semi-circular leather album containing pictures of the St.John which belonged to Charles's mother Lady Bolingbroke. It appears that Charles sent one as a Christmas greeting to his family at Lydiard Park, shortly after the end of the war. It is inscribed

C.R. St.John Somerset L.I. XMAS.1918