Charles Damant was born in Melton on 11th September 1878 and his first recorded occupation, in 1901, was that of a groom. By 1911 he had left home and was working as a domestic gardener in Kessingland, Suffolk. Charles was conscripted into the army in 1916, at the age of thirty-eight. He served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and remained with them throughout the war. In 1917, he married Rose E Gordon in the Saffron Walden area of Essex.

For his war service, Charles received the British War and Victory Medals.

In 1939, Charles and Rose were living in St John’s Street in Woodbridge, where he was employed as a caretaker. When he died in 1962, Charles and Rose were living in Sun Lane, Woodbridge.