Charles Murray Carpenter

Charles Murray Carpenter (‘Chips’) was the son of C Wilson Carpenter. He was commissioned in the Royal Engineers on 25 July 1890. A key part of his pre-war career was spent with 17 Field Company, then under the command of ‘that great trainer of officers and other ranks, Sir Ronald Maxwell’. He also saw active service in China (1900). Carpenter was a fit, physically tough, gregarious man, a first-class horseman, but also an accomplished pianist.

He was CRE 9th (Scottish) Division (October 1915-January 1916) and CRE 17th (Northern) Division (January 1916-April 1918), when he became Chief Engineer IV Corps, a post he held until the end of the war. His experience, earlier in the war, as an OC Bridging Train, stood him in good stead for the engineering problems posed by the Great Advance.

General Carpenter served as District ARP Warden for Westminster in the Second World War.