Charles Ernest York was the third of the eleven children of John Glover York and his wife Lucy nee Franklin. His father was a successful draper and grocer, and was himself the son of a master builder, and so the family had run various businesses for some time.
Charles was born on 24 May 1872 in Highgate, Middlesex, though the family were originally from the Midlands. He was baptised in Highgate on 23 August but by 1881 the family had come to Harbury in Warwickshire. Father John set up as a shipper and the family home was ultimately Avenue House in Avenue Road, Leamington, a nine-bedroomed residence of considerable size, auctioned in 1912 after John's death in 1899. He had also owned two properties in Jordan Well, Coventry, which may well have been warehouses for his business, since when Charles Ernest married on 31 July 1897, his occupation was warehouseman. He too had trained as a draper, however. Initially the couple lived in Meriden Street in Coventry and just four years later, in 1901, Charles was described in the census as a draper's manager.
Charles' bride was Janet Gilchrist Waugh, a Scot from Rothesay, though the marriage took place at Sutton in Surrey. Charles and Janet were living in Eaton Road, Coventry by 1911, with two young daughters. By the 1939 register Charles Ernest, now retired, was living at Finham Green, interestingly with
Gertrude Dexter (
B5.4) whose husband had been steward of the nearby golf club, and her mother
Ellen Wilkes (
B6.3) (Charles' wife was at this point registered, as was her younger daughter, at an hotel in Bournemouth). When he died ten years later on 26 May 1949 his address was, indeed, Finham Green Farm.