Private Robert Charlton was the elder son of James and Elizabeth Charlton of The Chestnuts, Burley-on-the-Hill, and was born at Aldbrough, near Darlington, on 27 February 1896. He was educated at Oakham School between 1907-12 and was an articled clerk to Messrs. Moore and Morrel chartered accountants, of Nottingham. He enlisted in the Nottingham City Battalion in September 1914, and was immediately drafted to the 3rd Battalion Sherwood Foresters and trained at Crown Hill Barracks, Plymouth. He was one of the 30 volunteers who were sent out to France as a reinforcement to the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) in January 1915. He died on 9 August the same year, killed by a bomb whilst driving the Germans out of a communication trench near Hooge. Robert was the first member of the Nottingham Chartered Accountants Students' Society to be killed in action. He has no known grave and is remembered on Panel 41 of the Menin Gate in Yypres. He is also remembered in Burley Church and in Oakham School Chapel.