Person

Christopher Edgar was born in Spennymoor in January 1896, the oldest child of civil engineer and freemason George Wyon Rogers and his Cornish wife, Mabel, whom he had married in Warwickshire in 1893. At the time of the 1901 census, Mabel, listed as living on her own means, and the four children were in Padstow, Cornwall living with her parents; of the father there was no trace. In the summer of 1909 father George sailed for Canada, making for Winnipeg, Manitoba and work as a civil engineer. Mabel and the seven children joined him in the summer of the following year, crossing the Atlantic in the SS Lake Champlain.

Father George became city engineer in Assiniboia and Christopher and his brother George found work as clerks with the mortgage company Oscar, Hammond and Nanton, Winnipeg, and were popular members of the YMCA.

On 4 January 1916 Christopher, George and their friend and work colleague, Eric Williams, enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Winnipeg and were all posted to the 101st Battalion. Christopher, who had previously been a member of the 90th Winnipeg Rifles militia group, became Private 700805, and all three were posted to the 101st (Winnipeg Light Infantry) Battalion. The battalion embarked for England on 28 June on board the SS Olympic. They arrived on 5 July, and made for the camp at East Sandling, Kent, where a week later, the men were absorbed by the 17th Reserve Battalion, to provide reinforcements to the Canadian Corps in the field. The three friends were transferred to the 16th Battalion at the end of August, and joined them in France in mid-September.

According to the Manitoba Free Press Mr. and Mrs. Rogers had a letter from their sons dated 24 September which said that the three boys had just come safely through a very hot fight, and that all had had miraculous escapes.

Just over two weeks later, on 8 October 1916, Private 700505 Christopher Rogers was killed by a shell during an attack north east of Courcelette. He was reportedly buried between Grandecourt and Le Sous, south west of Combles, France, but has no registered grave, and is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, and also the Manitoba Historical Society’s Next of Kin Monument.

Civil Parish: Whitworth

Birth date: 06-Jan-1896

Death date: 08-Oct-1916

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Spennymoor (birthplace)
21 Middle Street, Padstow, Cornwall (1901 census)
90 Loudsmead Road, Tottenham, London (sister’s birth record)
264 Manderville Street, St James, Manitoba (1916 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)

Religion: Church of England

Employment: clerk (1916 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)

Family: Parents: George Samuel Wyon Rogers, Mabel J.Rogers nee Rooke
Siblings: Edith Mabel Rogers, William G. Rogers, Herbert S.J. Rogers, Eileen M. Rogers, Margaret Rogers, Joan Rogers

Military service:

90th Winnipeg Rifles (pre-war militia)
700515
Private
101st Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
17th Reserve Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
16th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Vimy Memorial, France
Manitoba Next of Kin Memorial, Manitoba, Canada

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham | Jim Busby, Canada