Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Major

Army Number : 134351

Unit : 5th Bn (TA)

Biography :

Educated at Oakham School 1916-21, Charles Wortley went to Australia in 1922 and "chased sheep about" there until 1929, when - as his father approached his 80th year - he was called home to take over the family farm at Ridlington in Rutland.
On 4.9.1939 Charles was called up for the TA of The Leicestershire Regiment and was commissioned as 2Lt into the Regiment on 22.6.1940. He was medically downgraded due to flat feet. Unfit to be a front line infantry officer, he was attached to the Corps of Royal Military Police, in which he served in North Africa with the Central Mediterranean Force, in Italy and Austria. Promoted Captain in 1943. He was awarded a Mention in Despatches for service in the Middle East (L.G. 13.1.1944), and was later again awarded a Mention in Despatches (L.G. 29.11.1945) and the M.B.E. for work as Assistant Provost Marshal, HQ 15 Army Group, Italy, 1944-45 (L.G. 13.12.1945). 1945-1948 he was Assistant Provost Marshal at Klagenfurt in Austria (where the photograph was taken in 1947). From 1949 until the year of his death in 1973, aged 70 years, he worked for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), based and living initially in Haslemere and from 1952 in London.

Date of Birth : 23.3.1903

Place of Birth : Ridlington, Rutland

Date of Death : 12.6.1973

Place of Death : Chelsea, London

Civil Occupation : farmer in Australia and in Rutland; civil servant in Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)

Period of Service : 1939-48

Conflicts : WW2

Places Served : Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Italy, Austria