Private Charles Lowe was one of two brothers living in Barleythorpe who were killed in action. The other was Reginald Lowe. They were the sons of Martha Ann Palmer, of Frampton, near Boston, in Lincolnshire and Charles was born at nearby Tetford on 31 January 31 1886. He was a farm labourer at Barleythorpe when he joined up in September 1914, and went to France in June the following year with the 9th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment. He fought in the Battle of the Somme, and was killed by a shell on the 14 July 1916 during an attack on Bazentin-Le-Petit Wood. He was in a machine gun team, and a comrade writing to his mother said: "To find a better soldier and chum you would have to go a long, long way." The writer says he was shot in the head, possibly wanting to spare his mother the details of what really happened, a common practice during the war. Charles is remembered on Pier 3A of the Thiepval Memorial. He and his brother are also remembered on Langham's war memorial. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has his age as 29.

See where all our Rutland soldiers died during the Battle of the Somme on our interactive map.

Photograph courtesy Langham Village History Group