Their bodies are buried in peace; but their names liveth for evermore.

Their Duty Done

A tribute to the men and women of the East Gippsland Region who Died as a result of their participation in World War One : 1914 -1919

Charles Roy Jeffreys was the son of Robert and Annie Jeffreys. Robert was a tailor in Main Street, Bairnsdale and his son, Charles, was educated at the School of Mines and was working at Winson’s foundry where he showed much promise as a mechanical engineer. Charles was another of the Bairnsdale Rowing Club members who enlisted and it was during a recruiting drive in July 1915 that just as Lennox Duncan had been rejected he too was also rejected due to his small chest expansion! Charles was not only a keen member of the Rowing Club but was also regarded as a capable marksman at the local Rifle Club. Jeffreys was eventually accepted and joined the 2 nd  Field Company Engineers arriving in France in April 1916. In a letter to his mother he described how there is mud everywhere – over the boot tops and in some cases up to the knees and is described their routine two hour march to the frontline as the ground is full of shellholes, and was very slippery. It was a common sight to see a comrade slip right into a deep shell hole full of slush. When he came out he resembled a model in clay. I have escaped having one of these baths so far, though I have sat down and fallen down, face downwards, quite unintentionally, in inches of mud. The communication trenches were always full of mud and water, so we preferred walking along the top till we reached the last 800 yards. Then we went down on the double because Fritz was always on the lookout for us and had a fairly heavy barrage fire toward us. … Our company was very fortunate in the matter of causalities. But for what one shell did we would have escaped scathless. This shell came into our trench and killed three outright and wounded four others. In early January 1917 Charles requested a transfer to the 1 st  Divisional Supply Column. At 1.45pm on 21 January 1917 he was the lookout man on a lorry carrying supplies for the troops. There had been heavy rain and the sides of the lorry were up, hindering the view from the lorry. At a railway level crossing at Behencourt the lorry was struck by a train and he was killed instantly. The 24-year-old was buried the next day at the British Military Cemetery, Contay, France.