Charles Alfred Viney was born in Hemel Hempstead in November 1898 and baptised on Sunday, 15th January the following year at St John the Evangelist Church in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire. He was the first of three children born to Alfred Viney and Lilian Baker and his younger siblings were Maurice William and Leonard Walter. Charles grew up on Marlowes in Hemel Hempstead next door to Frank Beckley’s Hairdressing salon where Frank’s nephew Philip worked. Philip was also killed in the Great War in 1916 and his biography is on this site.

Charles parents were both natives of London and the family lived with his paternal Grandmother, Emma Jane Viney, who ran a newsagents and post office at 70 Marlowes, which she was still running in 1911 aged seventy-three. The shop stood across the road from Boxmoor Iron Works and would have been approximately opposite Bank Court on Marlowes today. His father Alfred was an "Overseer" in the Printing Department at John Dickinson & Co. Limited whilst his mother Lilian worked with her Mother-in-law.

When Charles left school in November 1911, he joined his Grandmother and Mother in the newsagents as an "Assistant" and he was still in this job when war broke out. Too young to enlist, he had to wait until the end of 1916 when he went to Watford to attest on the 4th October. He was one month away from his eighteenth birthday, but his service records show that he was accepted for service and enlisted with the Training Reserve Battalion and on the promise of service was transferred to the Army Reserve.

A considerable reorganisation of the reserve infantry battalions took place in September 1916. Prior to this date, most of the infantry regiments contained one or more reserve battalions of the regular and new armies. Recruits would be posted to these battalions for basic training, before they were posted to an active service unit. With the introduction of the Military Service Act (conscription) earlier in 1916, the regimental system simply could not cope with the numbers. A new structure was put into place known as the "Training Reserve" and the local nature of recruitment for infantry regiments was abandoned and the entire system centralised. After the 1st September 1916, regimental distinctions disappeared and the reserve units of the regiments were instead redesignated as battalions of the Training Reserve. The official complement of the Training Reserve was a little over 208,500 soldiers.

Charles was mobilised on the 20th February 1917 and his medical examination recorded that he was 5 feet 5½ inches tall, weighed 112lbs (exactly 8st) and had a chest measurement of 33 inches. He was passed "Fit" for military service and posted to Maidstone, Kent and the 26th Training Reserve Battalion, which became the 245th Infantry Battalion on the 7th March 1917. He was sent overseas on the 31st October 1917 and transferred to the 15th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), which he joined on the 9th November at Elverdinghe near Ypres.

Charles’ initial experience of life at the front was one of training, drilling, trench improving and "delousing", but above all generally quiet. The Sherwood Foresters were in reserve between November 1917 and March 1918 and suffered very few casualties during that period, the battalion war diaries records “Wounded 4 O.R.” in early January. In March however all this was to change dramatically. The Battalion under the orders of the 35th Division had moved to Maricourt, south of Bapaume in France arriving on the 23rd March 1918. The division had moved to this sector to support the next major allied offensive at the Battle of the Somme (1918) and on the 24th the Sherwood Foresters took up positions to resist the advancing German troops.

Over the next three days the Battalion came under increasing pressure from the enemy and suffered persistent and heavy shelling from German artillery. The unit had to withdraw twice to safer positions but “the enemy were heavily engaged” and the Battalion received some “valuable assistance rendered by Tanks”. The Sherwood Foresters received orders to withdraw on the 26th and were relieved a day later. The War Diary recorded the following: “Total casualties since the 24th. Officers 12 – O Rs 458” Charles was reported "Missing" at some point after the 22nd March and subsequently presumed "Killed". His military records recorded his date of death officially as Thursday, 28th March 1918.

Back in England, a rumour reached his parents that he had been killed and a brief report appeared in the Hemel Gazette and sadly for his parents, his death was subsequently confirmed officially.

He was commemorated at the parish church of St John the Evangelist in Boxmoor where he had been baptised.

Charles is Remembered with Honour on Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France, Panel 52 to 54.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

Charles was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.