839065 Pte. Charles Richard Foames was born in the county of Essex, England, on January 13th, 1896. At thirteen Charles became a Home Boy, when he was probably forced to migrate through this emigration scheme. A scheme meant to give underprivileged children a chance at a new life.
Arriving in Canada in 1909 under the auspicious of Miss MacPherson, who ran many of the receiving homes for these children, John Burns, a single farmer from Woodford, would take Charles and another Home Child, Florence Partner, in. The 1911 census is filled in indicating that John had adopted both these children. While that may be true, the MacPherson home continued with their inspections of these children. The home's paperwork for the July 1916 inspection shows Charles was on active service.
Charles had indeed attested in to the 147th (Grey) Battalion on March 18th, 1916, where he listed J.B. Burns as a friend. Assigned to "D" Company under the command of Captain Pollard, Charles was billeted locally over the winter, until the unit left for training at Camp Niagara in the spring of 1916. As the conditions in the Camp were wanting the unit moved to the new training facility of Camp Borden in late June. In September the unit received their orders to proceed overseas, but due to an outbreak of diphtheria they were detained in Amherst, Nova Scotia, for over a month. The unit finally sailed for Great Britain, on November 14th 1916.
On January 1st, 1917, the 147th Battalion ceased to exist when it became the nucleus for the 8th Reserve Battalion, whose task it was to supply reinforcements to the 58th Battalion and the 4th C.M.R. Charles was taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R. on March 17th, 1917, just weeks before the assault on Vimy Ridge and was assigned to the 3rd Canadian Engineer Battalion.
Rejoining the 4th C.M.R. after Vimy he would see service with them into the muddy battlefield of Passchendaele, where he was wounded in the foot. Medically evacuated, he would rejoin the unit in December of that year.
It was on August 9th, 1918, during the Battle of Amiens that Private Charles Richard Foames was lost, being Killed-in-Action. Charles was laid to rest in the Caix British Cemetery, south-east of Amiens, France.
Credit and thanks for this biography go to George Auer.