Charles George's Story.
1662 Private C. G. Cole, 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry, died of disease on 23rd January 1902 at Middelburg, Transvaal. He is buried at Middelburg Cemetery, South Africa. He was awarded the Queen’s South Africa medal, with clasps for Johannesburg, Cape Colony and Orange Free State.
Charles George Cole was born in 1867 in Easington, Gloucestershire, the eldest son of Charles (1834–1893) and Emma nee White. He grew up in Ross, Herefordshire, living in 1881 at Townsend Row with his siblings Richard, Mary, Charlotte, Harry and William. When Charles enlisted into the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, at the age of 18, on 2nd July 1885, his occupation was carpenter.
On 27th December 1892, he married 38-year-old Rebecca Hill at Kilkenny, Ireland. They moved to Crewe, where Charles was a general labourer for the London and North Western Railway Company, and they had two sons – William born 1894, who died in infancy, and Charles Jonathan Cole (1896 – 1972). The children’s baptism records state that their father was a painter. The family addresses were 70 and 26 New Street, Monks Coppenhall, Crewe, and 16 Cooperative Street, where Rebecca was living with her younger son in April 1901.
By then, Charles was with his regiment in South Africa. He died of disease (probably typhoid or dysentery) on 23rd January 1902 at Middelburg, Transvaal. He was 35 years old.
On 27th December 1892, he married 38-year-old Rebecca Hill at Kilkenny, Ireland. They moved to Crewe, where Charles was a general labourer for the London and North Western Railway Company, and they had two sons – William born 1894, who died in infancy, and Charles Jonathan Cole (1896 – 1972). The children’s baptism records state that their father was a painter. The family addresses were 70 and 26 New Street, Monks Coppenhall, Crewe, and 16 Cooperative Street, where Rebecca was living with her younger son in April 1901.
By then, Charles was with his regiment in South Africa. He died of disease (probably typhoid or dysentery) on 23rd January 1902 at Middelburg, Transvaal. He was 35 years old.
By 1911, Rebecca and her son Charles J. had returned to Ireland, at St. Mary's Lane, Kilkenny, where she was a dressmaker. In 1921, she and Charles J were living in Southgate, Middlesex, England. Rebecca did not remarry. Her son Charles J. became a solicitor’s clerk in Middlesex.
Compiled by S. Lewington 2025