First World War Memorial, St Margaret’s Church, Oxford

Charles Austin PAYNE (1890–1918)

See also Charles’s younger brother, Stuart William Payne

Charles Austin Payne was born in Oxford in 1890, the son of Charles Thomas Payne (born in Oxford and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 7 July 1867) and Stella Austin (born in Ambrosden in c.1865). His parents were married in the Headington Registration District (which includes the St Giles’ area ) in the fourth quarter of 1889 and had four children:

• Charles Austin Payne (born in Oxford in 1890 (registered third quarter)
• Jessie Kate Payne (born at St Giles’ Cottage, Oxford on 19 September 1891, baptised at SS Philip & James Church on 15 November 1891)
• Stuart William Payne (born in Oxford on 13 April 1895, baptised at SS Philip & James Church on 2 May 1895)
• Florence Margaret Payne (born in Oxford on 18 July 1899, baptised at St Margaret’s Church on 27 August 1899).

Charles’s father is described as a gardener in the 1891 census, when the family was living at St Giles Cottage on the corner of Banbury and Bardwell Road and Charles was just nine months old. Within a year the family had moved to at 78 Kingston Road (then in SS Philip & James parish, but in St Margaret’s parish from 1896). (This house had until then been occupied by the Pacey family, who were also to lose a son in the war.) Charles’s father was now a dairyman, as his own father had been before him. The 1901 census, when Charles was ten, shows the family at 78 Kingston Road.

By 1911 Charles junior (20) was also a dairyman, and still living at 78 Kingston Road with his parents.

In the First World War Charles Austin Payne served as a Private in the 1st/8th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment (Service No. 307768). He died of wounds in France on 20 October 1918 at the age of 28 and is buried at the Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport (VIII.J.9A). He is remembered on the war memorial outside St Margaret’s Church in north Oxford.

Charles’s younger brother Stuart William Payne (23) was killed in action in France just 13 days before his brother, on 7 October 1918.