Captain Charles Gordon Paramore was the sixth of the seven children of Richard Paramore (1848-1912) and Louisa Elizabeth Paramore née Hick (1854-1930). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1885 in the Pancras, London, registration district. His father was a doctor of medicine.
The 1891 census shows him living at 2 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, with his parents, five siblings: Richard Horace Paramore (1876-1965), William Erasmus Paramore (1877-1943), Edith Louisa Paramore (1880-1958), Florence Maud Paramore (b.1882) and Walter Justice Smith (1890-1966), together with a lady's maid and two female general domestic servants. A Daily Mail newspaper article relates that as a rebellious boy he launched his father’s cat off the roof in a parachute.
Educated at Merchant Taylors School, in the 1901 census he is shown as a scholar still residing at 2 Gordon Square with his parents, his brother William, a cook and two other female domestic general servants. On 21 March 1911 he enrolled as a student in the Royal Academy and in the 1911 census he was shown as an art student still living at 2 Gordon Square with his parents, his brothers William and Walter, his sister Edith, together with a housemaid.
The London Gazette of 22 September 1914 confirms that as a member of the University of London Officer Training Corps, he was commissioned as a temporary Second Lieutenant in the infantry with effect from 19 September 1914. He served in the 8th (Service) Battalion, Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment), gaining promotion to the rank of Captain and entered France on 8 August 1915. He was killed in action on 25 September 1915 and was buried near where he fell. After the war his body was exhumed and reburied in Plot 3, Row K, Grave 3 in Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos-en-Gohelle, France.
Probate records show his address to have been Hampton Villas, St Mary's Road, Mortimer, Berkshire and that when on 8 June 1916 administration of his estate was granted to his mother his effects totalled £219-8s-2d. She was also sent his army effects of £97-6s-11d on 23 June 1916. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal and these were sent to his mother at 'Ashleigh', Tansley, near Matlock, Derbyshire.
He is also commemorated on the war memorials in Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Tansley, Matlock DE4 5FH and on the Mortimer War Memorial at The Street, Mortimer, Reading, RG7 3RG. He is one of the 56 names on the memorial in St Mary the Virgin Church, The Street, Strathfield Mortimer, Reading, RG7 3NU and is also one of the 24 names on the memorial in St John the Evangelist Church, The Street, Mortimer Common, Reading, RG7 3SY. His name is also recorded on both the Merchant Taylors' School War Memorial now located at Sandy Lodge, Moor Park, Northwood, HA6 2HT and the memorial in their Sports Ground Club House.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
