Charles was from about 1922 the landlord of the Brewers Arms in Bicknacre. He was born in 1889 in West Ham to John and Mary Ann Smith. In 1911 Charles was living with his mother and father, a grocer and shopkeeper, in Napier Road, Leytonstone and at the time he was employed as a turner, engineer. By 1921 Charles was working for himself as a mechanical engineer based at 345 High Street, Stratford and living at Matthews Park Avenue, Stratford with his wife Isabella. Charles had married Isabel Errington at All Saints West Ham on 26th March 1916. Isabel and Isabella seem to have been interchangeable names.
Sometime in the early 1920s Charles and Isabella moved to The Brewers Arms where they ran the pub. Isabella sadly died in September 1931 at the Essex County Hospital of pericarditis, pleural effusion and chronic nephritis as a result of kidney disease.
Charles continued to run The Brewers Arms and in 1939 when the national registration took place he was living there as was Alice Kerwin his house keeper. He is reputed to have purchased one of the first televisions that he set up in the bar for the benefit of his customers. Unfortunately all television broadcasts were suspended at the outbreak of the war for the duration.
During the war Charles joined the 2nd Essex Home Guard where he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant. The headquarters of the 2nd Essex Home Guard was in Maldon with companies in Maldon and Danbury. He was also a parish councillor and a member of The Royal Observer Corps.
During bombing raids he was reputed to have offered shelter to locals in the pub’s cellar. Unfortunately on 16th July 1943, having spent the evening with the Home Guard searching for an escaped prisoner, he was standing in his kitchen when he was fatally injured when the pub received a direct hit from one of two high explosive bombs, the other falling unexploded in the garden of a cottage opposite.
He was buried at St Mary’s Churchyard Woodham Ferrers where there is a Commonwealth War Grave headstone erected.
His older brother John Alfred Smith, also a licensed victualler and landlord of The General’s Arms, Little Baddow, obtained probate on his estate.
The Brewers Arms remained closed, due to extensive damage, until the end of 1943 when it re-opened and remains open to this day.
Charles and Isabella do not appear to have had any children.