b. 21/10/1868 Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham. d. ?
DATE OF AM ACTION: 25/02/1908 Kirkee, India.
Frederick Charles, more commonly known as Charles, was born in Hetton, County Durham on 21st October 1868, the son of Charles Stephens. He became a miner before enlisting in the Royal Artillery on his 19th birthday. On 4th August 1890 he married Emma Stanley at St John’s, Woolwich, and they had two daughters and a son. He was promoted to Battery Sergeant Major on 12th May 1899, and just prior to his AM action, on 4th January 1908, to Brigade Sergeant Major of 42nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was discharged to pension on 3rd January 1913, having served 16 years. He doesn’t appear to have been recalled for WWI service. He is believed to have died in WWII.
AM CITATION:
On the 25th February, 1908, a violent explosion of blank gun cartridges occurred in the store of the 44th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, at Kirkee, India, and while the building was full of smoke, and it was impossible to tell whether a further explosion might follow, Major Lithgow and Sergeant-Major Stephens, hearing that Battery Quarter-Master Sergeant Dennis was in the burning building, at once went to his rescue through the dense smoke, and succeeded in bringing him out, though unhappily he was so seriously hurt that he succumbed to the injuries sustained.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
