A century on from the end of World War I we acknowledge their service …
Lest we forget.
Gunner Charles William Greenfield
Born: 1897 Box Hill. Died: 19 May 1932 Geelong.
Enlisted: 1 November 1916 aged 19.
Served: Western Front
Charles was the son of Charles Henry Greenfield and his wife Kate Beck, who owned “Warrawee” in Pakenham North (Toomuc Valley) which included a small orchard producing around 6000 cases of fruit per season. By WWI, the family was living at Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula.
On 18 October 1917, Charles was wounded in action, sustaining wounds to the neck and foot and invalided to England, returning to his unit on 21 July 1918.
Charles was discharged in Melbourne on 4 August 1919 – exactly five years after war had been declared.
In 1920, he received assistance under the Soldiers’ Settlement Scheme to purchase 57 acres of land from his father near Bittern on the Mornington Peninsula. He soon proved himself a “very industrious and satisfactory settler” with an “exceptionally well worked” orchard of apples and apricots.
In 1923, Charles married Jeanette Patching. Despite a promising future, misfortune struck when Charles developed tuberculosis of the spine.
Unable to work his property, he relinquished it and died on 19 May 1932 aged just 35.
This is an extract from Patrick Ferry’s book A Century After The Guns Fell Silent – Remembering the Pakenham District’s WWI Diggers 1914-18.
For more details on this and other profiles in the book, head to the website www.pakenhamww1.com
