LIEUTENANT C. VERNER, 3RD AND 8TH BATTALIONS BEDFORDSHIRE REGIMENT AND ROYAL AIR FORCE. Tw
£140.00
LIEUTENANT C. VERNER, 3RD AND 8TH BATTALIONS BEDFORDSHIRE REGIMENT AND ROYAL AIR FORCE. Two: British War and Victory Medals (Lieutenant). BWM attractively toned, Extremely Fine.
Group accompanied by copied extract from 1901 census, London Gazette extracts, copied Medal Index card and 2 pages copied RAF service papers, along with copied extracts from “The Bedfordshire Regiment in the Great War” website, including a group photograph that includes the then 2nd Lieutenant Verner, post-war electoral register extracts and London Gazette extract re. 1924 change of surname.
Charles Verner is recorded in the 1901 census as being the 5 year old son of Alice Verner, who is described in the census return as the 23 year old head of the household. First commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, 10/3/1915 and promoted Lieutenant, 1/7/1917. Verner is confirmed in his RAF service papers as having transferred to the Royal Air Force from the 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment on 1/4/1918, the day on which the RAF was founded. Service papers confirm service with Administrative Section, RAF. Verner was transferred to the Unemployed List on 14/4/1919
Charles Verner saw service in France with the 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, which landed in France in August 1915, saw service with 71st Brigade, 6th Division, and was disbanded in France on 16/2/1918, just prior to Verner’s transfer to the RAF. Medal Index card gives Verner’s wartime home address as 8B Lancaster Place, Hampstead, London SW3. He is confirmed as living at the same address in the 1823 and 1948 electoral registers. The 15th April 1924 edition of the London Gazette, page 3160, records Charles Verner “formerly Charles Verner Smith”, of 8 Lancaster Place, changing his surname to Verner only. Charles Verner died in 1949.
Lieutenant Charles Verner, RAF, is not to be confused with Captain Charles George Verner, RAF (possibly a relative), who saw service in France from 1914 with the Royal Naval Air Service and later saw service with the Royal Air Force, who and whose service papers also accompany this group.