Swain, Charles Douglas Downs (Charles)
Lieutenant
186th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
Killed in action on Saturday 29 September 1917 (aged 25)
Buried:
White House Cemetery, St Jean-Les-Ypres, Belgium (Grave I. B. 26)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Credence Table in Helen’s Bay Church of Ireland Church
Ryde Borough War Memorial
Ryde All Saints Church War Memorial
Carisbrooke Castle County War Memorial
BIOGRAPHY
Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain was a son of Major Charles S. Swain and Rose Swain of The Observatory, Melville Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight.
On 7 July 1909, Charles Douglas Downs Swain was appointed Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Hampshire Battery, 1st Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
On 6 December 1911, Second Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain was transferred from the 1st Wessex Brigade to the 2nd Wessex (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
On 25 June 1913, Second Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery.
He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and, during the Great War, Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain served for a time in the Royal Garrison Artillery at Grey Point Battery under Major F.G. Hill.
Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain was 25 when he died and he was buried in White House Cemetery, St Jean-Les-Ypres, Belgium. His CWGC headstone bears the inscription:
R.I.P.
Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain is commemorated on the Credence Table in Helen’s Bay Church of Ireland Church which bears the following inscription:
THIS
CREDENCE TABLE WAS
ERECTED BY MAJOR F G HILL QC RGA
SEPTEMBER 1914 TO JULY 1919
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF THE
OFFICERS WHO SERVED UNDER HIM AT GREY POINT
BATTERY AND GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR KING
AND COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR
ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY
CAPT W B PEPPER LIEUT C D D SWAIN
LIEUT D O’RORKE ALSO LIEUT C V DARNELL
LIEUT L H McKISACK ATTACHED RFC
ATTACHED INFANTRY OFFICERS
CAPT W A VERSCHOLE ROYAL IRISH FUSILIERS
LIEUT O B MACAUSLAND INDIAN ARMY
LIEUT W LA NAUZE ROYAL IRISH RIFLES
Charles Douglas Downs Swain was born on 7 June 1892 in Demerara, Guyana and he was a son of Charles Sanchez de Pina Swain (a civil servant born in Turkey) and Rose Swain (nee Dowds) who were married on 1 July 1891 in Paddington, London. They had four children:
Charles Douglas Downs (Charles, sometimes Douglas, born 7 June 1892 in Demerara, British Guiana)
Claude de Pina Downs (Claude, born 26 December 1893 in Georgetown, British Guiana; died 22 September 1925 in Antigua, British West Indies)
Rose Gwendoline Downs (Gwendoline, born 22 March 1896 in Demerara, British Guiana; died March 1982 in Hampshire)
Francis Ronald Downs (Ronald, born 31 August 1903 in Southsea, Hampshire, England; awarded CBE; married 5 November 1938 Sarah Mitchell LeFevre; died 28 September 1989 in Florida, USA)
Their father, Charles Sanchez de Pina Swain, died on 10 January 1937 in Southsea, Hampshire, England.
Their mother, Rose Swain (nee Dowds), died on 14 January 1964 in Hampshire.
Lieutenant Charles Douglas Downs Swain’s father, Charles Sanchez de Pina Swain, served with the Royal Field Artillery.
His brother, Francis Ronald Downs Swain, served with the Royal Air Force.
His brother, Claude de Pina Downs Swain, served with the Royal Field Artillery.
His cousin, Flight Lieutenant Oswald Bertie Swain, died in service during the Second World War on 23 September 1940. His wife, Civilian Irene Edith Clarissa Jane Swain died in the same incident.