Sauerbeck, CTW

Captain Charles Theodore William Sauerbeck

Born on New Year’s Eve 1892, Charles was the son of Augustus Sauerbeck and his wife, Josephine, who were originally from Mannheim in Germany. He started at Dulwich in April 1906 and went on to spend four years at the College, leaving in the summer of 1910 from the Engineering Remove. After Dulwich he went to the City and Guilds Engineering College, in South Kensington where he undertook a four-year course, eventually graduating in the summer of 1914. During his final year he also signed up as an army reservist with a unit called the London Electrical Engineers.
When war was declared in August 1914 Charles was on a climbing trip in Switzerland but upon his return to England he, as a reservist, was called up for active service. He spent several months with the L.E.E., before being granted a commission in the Durham Light Infantry shortly before Christmas 1914. In August 1915 he went over to the front for the first time but was invalided home with gunshot wounds less than three months later. He returned to the front in May 1916 and shortly afterwards was promoted to Lieutenant. In July he was seriously wounded once more, necessitating a return to England to recuperate and another nine-months away from the front line. In March 1917 he returned to the trenches for the third and final time and that June was awarded the M.C. for his gallant work as an intelligence officer at Messines, despite a wounded knee, which later turned septic causing him to spend another month in hospital, albeit this time in France. On September 11th that year, shortly after being promoted to acting Captain, he was killed by a German shell while on a reconnaissance mission.