Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

04/02/1870

Place of Birth

Ramelton, Donegal, Ireland

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Mary Gwynne (wife)

Final Rank

Colonel

Final Unit

II Anzac Corps Headquarters

Gwynn served with the British Army from 1889 and was Director of Military Art (instructing in strategy, tactics and military history) at the Royal Military College, Duntroon when it opened in 1911. After World War 1 began he returned to England in September 1914 and in July 1915 became Chief of Staff to James Legge in the 2nd Division, AIF with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and then commanding officer of the 6th Brigade, AIF in September 1915. After the Gallipoli campaign he served as Chief of Staff to Sir Alexander Godley, commander of II Anzac Corps, for the remainder of the war. He remained with the British Army after the war and was commandant of the Staff College at Camberley for five years from 1926 after which he retired. Gwynn was knighted in 1931 and died in Dublin, Ireland on 12 February 1963.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. II p.805, 810, Vol. IV p.658)
Australian Dictionary of Biography online www.adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gwynn-sir-charles-william-6511/text11175, accessed online 5 June 2014
AWM Collections Record : P02029.022