Charles Gregory GARDINER (1848-1903)

Charles Gregory Gardiner (1848-1903), known as Charley, was the brother of Caroline Florence Mourilyan (née Gardiner), who was the sister-in-law of Eugénie Sladden (née Mourilyan). 

Charles was born in 1848 at Bath, Somerset, the sixth of nine children of George Gregory, a Clerk in Holy Orders, and his wife, Frances Mary (née Touchet).  He was baptised on 2nd November 1848 at Walcot St Swithin, Somerset.  The family then lived at 12 Cavendish Place, Walcot.

When he was three years old, the family moved to Bonn when Reverend Gardiner was appointed the English chaplain.  In 1859 the family moved to Paris, where Reverend Gardiner had accepted a post as Chaplain of the English Protestant Chapel in Avenue Marboeuf

Charley had a career in the navy.  He was made a Mate and Sub Lieutenant on 19th August 1868 and served on HMS Forte.  A letter of 20th December 1873 said that his ship was going to the Gold Coast.  He was made a full Lieutenant in December 1878 and finished his career as Commander.

On retirement, Charley lived at 2 Magdalen Road, St Leonards, Sussex.  He helped to care for his widowed mother in the last decade of her life, after the death of his father.

Charles Gardiner died suddenly on 3rd August 1903 at Hastings, Sussex, aged 54.  A newspaper article entitled “Sad affair at Hastings – sudden seizure after a game of golf (special obituary notice)” gave details of his death.  He died of a heart attack when he was cycling home.  The article concluded by saying, “He was distinctly a man who will be missed, a friend in the best sense of the word, and a man who, though in St Leonards society, absolutely set his face against listening to or repeating scandal in the Club, on the Parade, or at St Leonards At Homes.  When the news of Commander Gardiner's death became known in St. Leonards on Saturday evening the Rector gave orders for the bell of the Parish Church to be tolled, and the family of the deceased were specially remembered at the weekly prayer meeting at the Church House.”