The Malvern News reported the following on the 12th April 1919: “The death of Charles Giraudeau, a young French soldier is reported. He died of the effects of gas poisoning. He was the only son of Madame Giraudeau, who for five years was on the staff of Clarendon Girls School”. The first part of the service was conducted at Holly Mount Church by Revd C F Percy, of the YMCA Birmingham. The coffin was borne by 6 returning POWs and was covered in the French flag, on which was placed a white satin cushion with the blue cap and decorations of the deceased.

A French friend of the deceased writes: “Here by the hills of Malvern under the delicate branches of the silver birch lies a grave where the flowers have hardly faded. It is that of a young hero of liberty, who tasted the joy of his country’s victory and then gave his life as the result of his share in the gift. Of the famous 159th Regiment of the Alpine Infantry, which but its feat of arms won the lanyard of the Croix de Guerre, Charles Giraudeau was surely the youngest and at dawn on the 29th March he gently laid down his head to rest, like a tired child in his mother’s arms. They dressed him again in the sky blue uniform and laid on his coffin the flag of his country and on a cushion if whitest satin his blue cap and decorations. Six English soldiers bore him to his grave. He lies in foreign soil, but in a country well beloved.”

Malvern News 12/4/19