First World War in Headington and Marston
New Marston War Memorial

Charles TOLLEY (1884–1916)

Charles Tolley was born in Old Marston in 1884, the son of Charles Tolley senior (born in Elsfield in 1854, registered fourth quarter) and Annie Maria Jones (born in Horton-cum-Studley in 1862, registered fourth quarter).

His parents were married at St Nicholas’s Church in Old Marston on 4 November 1883 and had just two children:

• Charles Tolley (born in Old Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 2 November 1884)
• Kate Tolley (born in New Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 6 April 1890).

At the time of the 1881 census Charles’s father of the same name, then a 25-year-old labourer, was living with his own parents in Church Lane, Old Marston. He was married two years later.

By the time of the 1891 Charles’s parents were living in Hazel Terrace in Edgeway Road, New Marston. Charles was then a schoolboy of 6, and his father was a gas stoker, as his own father had been before him.

At the time of the 1901 census Charles’s father was still working for the gas company and living at Edgeway Road. Charles (16) was now a telegraph messenger. In 1911 at the age of 26 he was still living with his parents and working as a postman. He does not appear to have married.

In the First World War Charles Tolley served as a Private in the 1st/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 5927). He died of wounds at the Somme in France at the age of 32 on 26 August 1916.

He is buried in the Varennes Military Cemetery (I.A.30)., and is remembered on the New Marston War Memorial on the Marston Road, Oxford. The following words were added to his parents’ gravestone in St Nicholas’s churchyard in Old Marston:

ALSO CHARLES TOLLEY
SON OF THE ABOVE
DIED OF WOUNDS IN FRANCE
AUGUST 26TH 1916
AGED 32.

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Postscript

Charles’s parents

• Charles Tolley senior died at the age of 75 on 26 August 1930 and was buried at St Nicholas’s churchyard in Old Marston.
• Mrs Annie Tolley died at the age of 79 on 21 April 1942 and was buried with her husband.

Charles’s sister

• Kate Tolley (born 1890) married Lewis Bolton, a tailor, in the Headington registration district (probably at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston) in the fourth quarter of 1914. They lived in New Marston, and their daughter Jean Bolton was baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 18 January 1920.