Charles Venables Corporal 13912 - 7th Bn. King’s Shropshire Light Infantry Died of wounds on Tuesday 16th January 191 7, age 23 Buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France Charles Venables was born in Gnosall in 1893 to labourer Frederick Venables, himself born in Gnosall and aged 30, and Sarah, nee Davis, from Bicton, 24. He was baptised at St Lawrence on 10 th  September 1893; the record states his parents lived at Gnosall Heath. In 1901 the family were at Church Eaton, with Frederick working as an agricultural labourer. Charles now had a younger sister, Mary. The 1911 census shows Charles, now aged 18, working as a carter for corn dealer Frederick Taylor, and living in Newport. Charles enlisted in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, 7 th  Battalion, and was promoted to Corporal. He was in action in France by September 1915 and was subsequently awarded the 1914-5 Star as well as the Victory and British medals. He died of wounds on 16 Jan 1917 and was buried at Etaples Military Cemetery, XXI. B. 14. His parents were by then living at Radmore Lane and the grave inscription reads: “Peace Perfect Peace” (chosen by Mr Frederick Venables, Radmore Lane, Gnosall).

Etaples Military Cemetery Historical Information During the First World War, the area around Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and accessible by railway from both the northern or the southern battlefields. In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained. The cemetery contains 10,771 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, the earliest dating from May 1915. 35 of these burials are unidentified. Hospitals were again stationed at Etaples during the Second World War and the cemetery was used for burials from January 1940 until the evacuation at the end of May 1940. After the war, a number of graves were brought into the cemetery from other French burial grounds. Of the 119 Second World War burials, 38 are unidentified. Etaples Military Cemetery also contains 662 Non Commonwealth burials, mainly German, including 6 unidentifed. There are also now 5 Non World War service burials here. The cemetery, the largest Commission cemetery in France