The Queens Own Royal West Kent R

The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment

Lieutenant C M Payton

Lieutenant Charles Mervyn PAYTON, 3rd Battalion attached "A" Company, 1st Battalion, Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, killed in action, during the 2nd Battle of Ypres, Flanders France, 18th April 1915, age 23.

5th December 1891, born Mogador, Morocco, only son of Sir Charles A. Payton, M.V.O. (retired Consul-General, Calais), of Stepney Court, Scarborough / 12, Falsgrove Road, Scarborough, by his first wife the late Lady Payton (nee Eliza Mary Olive, daughter of John Olive).

1911 Census - Quebee Barracks, West Kent Regiment, Bordon, Headley, Hampshire - Charles Mervyn Payton, 2nd Lieutenant, age 20, single, 3rd Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment, Commissioned Officer, Special Reserve, born Mogador, Morocco.

Educated Dover College and on leaving there in 1909, became a clerk under his father in the British Consulate at Calais; 1910, Gazetted 2nd Lieutenant, Reserve Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment; 6th September 1911, promoted Lieutenant; 1912, left the Army to go to Singapore, where he held a post on a rubber plantation, but in the following year was appointed Chief Clerk in the Colonial Secretary's Office, which appointment he gave up at on the outbreak of war in August 1914; returned home and rejoined his old Regiment, was on Special Duty in England for some time; January 1915, went to France; 18th April 1915, he was leading his men in an attack on Hill 60 and had picked up the rifle of a fallen soldier, and was firing at the enemy, when he was shot through the head.

His Commanding Officer wrote that he had done very good work and "shown himself to be a very brave man and a good leader." and a Sergeant of his Company wrote of him as "one of the best and truest , more like a brother to the men than an officer, cheering in the bleakest times by his brave gaiety, and mourned by them as a brother." He was a keen sportsman, a remarkably good shot and expert angler.

Commemorated at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Panel 45 and 47, Belgium & Singapore Cenotaph. / Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Service / Old Doverians.

Mentioned in Despatches - London Gazette 18th June 1915.

This page was last updated on 24-Mar-2021.