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Oh RAF, thank you for this as I said I knew nothing other than being told he was probably in the army and was shell shocked - so thats interesting to find out - my fathers cousin has since passed away and there are no other relatives I can ask. Thank you

just for info hosp in 1939

The hospital became Chelsham Mental Hospital in 1923.[1] It was a pioneering centre for psychosurgery. Surgeon John Crumbie designed his own leucotome (instrument for cutting the white matter in the brain) which was constructed by Warlingham's assistant clerk of works, and referred to by Wylie McKissock, who operated with a Cushing brain needle, as a "mechanical egg-whisk".[3] If the patients resisted the surgery they were given electroconvulsive shocks before being anaesthetised.[4] It also had a specialist unit to treat patients suffering from alcohol and drug dependency.[2]

The facility went on to become Warlingham Park Hospital in 1937 and joined the National Health Service in 1948.[2] After the introduction of Care in the Community in 1983, the hospital went into a period of decline and eventually closed in 1999.[2]

The archives were deposited with the Bethlem Royal Hospital which subsequently became the primary provider of mental health care to residents of Croydon.[2] Although the Grade II listed water tower was retained,[5] the remainder of the buildings were demolished to make way for an up-market housing estate known as Greatpark.[6]

Thank you for hospital information, it sounds awful Maddie, my mom said she'd met Charlie once when he came to visit his sister - moms mother-in-law- and he seemed such a nice gentle man but not really 'with it' , My dads cousin wrote telling me Charlie had really suffered through his time in the army (as she thought he was in the army) and after having electric shock treatment he " was never the same again". So very sad.

As the man was in a mental hospital in 1939, I would think it unlikely that he served after that, although it isn't impossible, of course.