Regiment: Royal Field Artillery, 173rd Siege Battery
Service No: 125617
Date & place of birth: 23 January 1891 (baptism date), Petworth
Date & place of death: 15 August 1917 (aged 26), Western Front, probably Belgium
Gunner Charles Gill is from the only pair of Petworth brothers killed in WW1 – his brother Alec was killed just five months earlier. This fact is missed from some sources as he is wrongly recorded as Spencer Charles Gill.
Family background
Charles Gill was born in Petworth in 1891, the son of Richard and Dinah Gill. Richard was a gardener and their other children were Frederick, Ernest Richard, Alec George and Ellen Eliza. They lived in Fairview in 1911; their address at the time of Charles’ death was given as High Street Petworth, but it is possible Fairview was part of High Street. Charles was an assistant grocer in 1911, living at home.
Military service
Gunner Gill enlisted in Horsham to the Royal Field Artillery and served in France and Belgium
Death and commemoration
Gunner Charles Spencer Gill was killed in action on 15 August 1917, probably in Belgium. He is buried in the Bard Cottage Cemetery, Belgium.