Soldier Record

My grandfather, Charles Henry Brunt, was the eldest son of Lavina and Joshua Brunt and was born in Bardsley, near Oldham in 1896. He left school at 13 and became a machine minder in a cotton mill. By the time of WWI he had become a cotton machine erector and decided to join up in 1916 and was recruited into the Royal Artillery. From his records he had some difficulty initially in learning to obey orders, but by the time he got to France in early 1917 he had been promoted to Staff Sergeant, so presumably his superiors saw something in him. He was only on the western Front very briefly before bring sent to Italy to reinforce the Italian Army who had been fighting a desperate battle to defend their NE border against the Austrians. The British forces helped push the Austrians back from the Piave River and over the Asiago Plateau in 1918. I visited this area last year and it is very beautiful mountainous and forested area which must have been very difficult for the heavy guns - the noise echoing through the mountains must have been terrible. My grandfather never spoke of his experience of battle other than to blame his smoking habit on trying to keep away the mosquitos, and I know that he was tear-gassed once. His experiences must have had an effect, however, as he would not allow either my uncle or my mother to join up during WWII.

The picture was taekn in 1916, Charles was aged 19