Charles Frederick Rayment was born on 9th October 1891 in the village of Milton Ernest, Bedfordshire, England, the son of Albert Barnard Rayment, a 41-year-old Coachman, and his second wife Harriet Rayment née Harrington.

The period of his early family life, first in Bedfordshire and later in Yorkshire, appears to have been rather uneventful and Charles, who was one of a total of twelve children, was still living with his parents in 1911 at The Elms in Grewelthorpe near Ripon in Yorkshire, which was where his father Albert was running a smallholding.

Charles married Sarah Kezie Chaplin in Ipswich, Suffolk, on 15th August 1915 and their only child, a daughter whom they named Doris, was born on 1st July 1916.

He carried on with his job as a Dairyman until 2nd May 1917 when, with The First World War still being in full swing, he joined the British Army and found himself serving in the 29th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. He was almost immediately transferred to the Labour Corps and was lucky enough to spend the whole of the rest of his military service in the relative safety of England, much of it at Felixstowe in Suffolk.

He was discharged from the Army with an unblemished service record on 11th September 1919 and returned to his civilian job as a Dairyman.

In 1927 Charles, his wife Sarah Kezie (known by everyone simply as Kezie) and their daughter Doris, moved to Elmer Farm in Finningham, a small Mid-Suffolk village about 16 miles north of the county town of Ipswich. It was there that they farmed until 1961 when they sold the farm and all set up home together at Norwich Road in Ipswich.

They were still living at Norwich Road when in 1975 Charles’ beloved wife Kezie died at the age of 83. Charles and Kezie had been living there with their daughter Doris since 1961.

Charles himself died in Ipswich on 29th October 1987 at the age of 96, having survived his wife by some twelve years. His spinster daughter Doris died at the Bethesda Eventide Homes, at Henley Road in Ipswich on 15th July 2007, thus bringing an end to their branch of the Rayment family.

Both the Rayment Society and Alison Barnes née Rayment, (who was Charles’ grandniece) have researched Charles’ life story but, apart from the notes above, it is a shame that very little else about him is known.