Charles Boon

A student of the Art School from 1911-1916, Charles Boon was enrolled as a full-time Day student.  He was clearly a gifted student and artist, as he regularly gained prizes and scholarships for his work.  For example, for the Session 1911-1912 he achieved a Polytechnic Prize, worth 7s 6d; for 1913-1914 he gained a L.C.C. Evening Exhibition in Art to the value of £3 per session with free tuition at Woolwich (reported in the Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine for January 1916), and in 1914-1915 he won a National Competition in Art Book Prize to the value of £1 awarded by the Board of Education (WPR) and a Sessional Course Certificate (WPM May 1916).  Charles Boon was born in Plumstead on August 24th 1897 (SD vol. 2; WPR), and was the son of Charles John and Marion Annie Boon, of 39, Plum Lane, Plumstead, London (CWGC).

146229, Bombardier, 403rd Battery, 220th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.   He enlisted at Woolwich, and died of wounds in Mesopotamia on 26th October 1918, aged 21 (SD vol. 2; CWGC).

Bombardier Boon has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial to the Mesopotamian Campaign, Shatt-al-Arab, Iraq, Panel 3 and 60.  This memorial records over 40,000 Commonwealth dead from the campaign.  He is also commemorated on the Woolwich Hospital War Memorial Roll of Honour, as well as the memorial panel associated with the reredos of St Margaret’s Church, Plumstead, now located in St Mark with St Margaret’s Church, Old Mill Road, Plumstead.

CWGC = Commonwealth War Graves Commission