Reynolds, CE

Lieutenant Charles Edward Reynolds

Charles was born on November 18th 1895, the second son of solicitor James Reynolds and his wife, Annie. He started at the College at the beginning of 1909, around eighteen months after his elder brother James had done so and was a pupil for the next four and a half years, leaving in the summer of 1913, at which point he was a member of the Modern Sixth. After Dulwich he spent time working at his father’s firm, studying law.
The outbreak of war saw Charles give up his studies to volunteer for military service and in September 1914 he took up a commission in the 1st Surrey Rifles. He spent almost two years involved in the training of recruits, being made Musketry Officer, at first for his Battalion and then for his whole Brigade. In July 1916 he went over to the front in France for the first time but by that November had already been transferred to Salonika in Greece. In March 1917 he was transferred once more, this time to Egypt, where he also became a member of the Royal Flying Corps, qualifying as a pilot several months later. After this he returned to England, spending the next six months undergoing specialist bombing training. In March 1918 he returned to France, where he was assigned to 55th Squadron. On May 18th Charles was involved in the daylight raid on Cologne; during the raid he received head wounds which necessitated a period of recuperation in England. He recovered in time to rejoin his Squadron that October. Mere weeks after returning, on October 23rd, he was returning from a raid when his plane crashed heavily upon landing, killing him. His elder brother, James, also an OA, had been killed at Ypres in 1915.