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Bilston, Caledonian Street, Charles Gandy, Grove Street, India, Midland Counties Express, Newbolt Road, postman, Silver War Badge, St Luke's Church, Stourbridge, Warwickshire
The third Gandy brother mentioned in the Midland Counties Express is Charles Leighton, The article states that his address was 14 Caledonian Street, Bilston, and that, like his brother Francis, he was also a postman. He had served 12 years in India with the 1st South Staffordshire Regiment, had been in receipt of a pension, but had rejoined his old regiment in August 1915. In May 1912, he was appointed as a postman in Bilston.
Charles was born in Stourbridge in 1877. He was a clothes folder in 1891. He married Maud Elizabeth Goodridge on 29 October 1904 at St Luke’s Church, Wolverhampton, and they had four children – Florence Maud (1905), Annie Charlotte (1906), Francis Leighton (1908), Gladys Hilda (1910) and Irene (1912). In 1911, he was lodging with William James Shirley at Coventry Road, Meriden, in Warwickshire, as a labourer, while his wife and children were at 19 Grove Street, Wolverhampton.
On 17 May 1915, he attested for the South Staffordshire Regiment (service number 18926). On 1 July 1917, he was discharged from the Army, having reached the rank of Corporal, as being “no longer physically fit for War Service”. He received the Silver War Badge (number 247315) on 8 September 1917. Charles died in Bilston on 18 January 1937 (by which date his address was 9 Newbolt Road, Bilston), and left effects to the value of £50.