Sergeant Charles James Percival Breach, Royal Garrison Artillery, 12th Siege Bty.

Sergeant Charles James Percival Breach of the Royal Garrison Artillery, 12th Siege Bty.

He was killed on 5th July 1917 aged 31. He is Buried in Vlamertinghe New Military and is commemorated on the Hampden Park Memorial.

This report appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette on 25th July 1917:

“Official intimation received by Mrs Marian I. Breach, Littlecot, Hampden Park, states that her husband Sergeant Charles James Percival Breach, Royal Garrison Artillery was killed in action near Ypres on July 5. Deceased who was the only son of Mr and Mrs H.T.Breach, Seaside Nursey, Roselands, Eastbourne was 31 years of age.

Educated at Holy Trinity Church School and Eastbourne Municipal Secondary School, Sergeant Breach entered the teaching profession. In 1902 he was appointed a teacher at the Willowfield Higher Grade School, an appointment he held until 1906, when he became a teacher at St. Marys Church School, Old Town. In 1911, he was appointed assistant head master on the first staff at the new Hampden Park Council School, a post he held until the date of his enlistment. That he was highly esteemed is evidenced by the large numbers of letters of condolence received by the widow.

Mr. Breach enlisted on May 18 1916, with the head master (Mr. R.H. Balcombe). He served at the front for 6 and a half months as a Corporal, was made Sergeant. On June 19th he returned to the front and in less than three weeks he was killed instantaneously, together with three other sergeants. He was buried in a graveyard between Poperinghe and Ypres.
Sergeant Breach was for some time captain of the Hampden Park Bowling Club.

The following tribute to the deceased has been received:

Dear Sir,
As an old scholar of the Hampden Park Council School, and on behalf of other old scholars, I would like, through the medium of your paper, to express the great regret which we all feel at the death of our one-time teacher, Mr. Breach. That he should take his place in the long line and that his name should be added to the list of those who so nobly made the supreme sacrifice, I am sure we are all justly proud.
We heartily appreciate the kind consideration which he always showed to us while under his tuition. Our remembrance of him will always be of the warmest kind, for we owe a great deal to his careful instruction.
To Mrs. Breach and his family we tender our warmest sympathies in the dark period of sorrow through which they are passing.
Yours sincerely,
Wesley Rentall-Read, Stantons, 34, Station Road, Hampden Park."