COMMEMORATED IN PERPETUITY BY THE

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment was based in Mandora Barracks, Aldershot at the outbreak of WW1, part of 6th Brigade - 2nd Infantry Division. The Battalion embarked for France in the first wave of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on 13th August 1914. They served on the western front throughout the conflict. Sergeant Charles Joyce disembarked in France on 25th February 1915. Following the British capture of the village of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, the Germans greatly strengthened their defences along the Aubers ridge, reinforcing their positions with thick barbed wire entanglements, concrete blockhouses and machine gun emplacements. These extra defences frustrated British attempts to break through enemy lines and led to very heavy casualties at the battles of Aubers Ridge and Festubert in May 1915. Sergeant Joyce is listed as dying of infection caused through battle sometime between the 15th and 19th May 1915. The death date on Le Touret memorial wall stated by the CWGC is 19th May. Death date on 'Soldiers That Died in Great War' states 16th May. Date of Death on the National Probate Calendar is “On or about 15th May” and Date of Death recorded on the WW1 Soldiers Effects Card is the 17th May.

Le Touret Memorial is located at the east end of Le Touret Military Cemetery, on the south side of the Bethune-Armentieres main road. The Le Touret Memorial commemorates over 13,400 British soldiers who were killed in this sector of the Western Front from the beginning of October 1914 to the eve of the Battle of Loos in late September 1915 and who have no known grave.

I have not been able to determine Charles’s parents, The best probability is that his Mother was Ann Sophia Joyce (eldest daughter of Charles & Sarah Joyce). Ann was living in Sutton Wick, Berkshire in 1891 with Richard Huggins. Ann died in 1906. From the age of 3 (1891), Charles was bought up by his Grandparents, Charles and Sarah Joyce, in The Causeway, Steventon. Charles Joyce's Grandparents and Great Grandparents had worked on farms in Steventon for  over 100 years, up until the death of his Grandfather in 1899. He and his Grandmother then moved to Abingdon Road, Drayton before Charles joined the Army sometime before 1911. After joining the Army, Charles moved to Northamptonshire. Charles had made a will before he died, he bequeathed his effects of £23 8s to spinster Frances Ann Rogers, possibly his fiancée. The National Probate Calendar lists his home address as 3 Gas Street, Northampton.

Joyce Way in Steventon is named after this soldier's family. Please click here for further information. or here for information from The Royal Berks Regiment