Andrews, Charles James, Jr.

Born James Mackenzie Andrews on March 10, 1916, in Norfolk, Virginia to Jean Cherry Cooke and Dr. Charles James Andrews. Jim asked his parents to have his name changed when he was 16. 

He attended Norfolk Academy, graduating as the class salutatorian in 1933. He went on to Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and earned his B.A. in 1937. In 1940 he earned a master's degree from Yale's School of Fine Arts; his thesis: a play, "The Poet died in Bed".

Andrews worked as an English teacher at the College of William and Mary's extension in Norfolk. In January 1943, he and a Yale classmate, Robert C. Bryan from Richmond, joined the American Field Service. They served alongside the 8th Army in North Africa and in Italy. Jim Andrews was killed on December 8, 1943, hit by a piece of shrapnel in the back of his neck.

CHARLES JAMES ANDREWS, Jr., who was killed while on duty at a New Zealand Medical Station on the 8th Army front in Italy. An NCO he was leading his section in the thick of the front line fighting when he was struck by fragments of a mortar shell.

__ AFS Letters No. 20

Well, about 10 that night I was pretty tired, so I got up and went across the street to the room where we slept. Jim Andrews and Henry, along with the Colonel, walked past me to go down to the MI Room to see whether there were any patients to be evacuated. No sooner had I entered the house than crash down came a shell no more than 10 yards away. I don't want to go into any details of what happened after that. . . . Jim was struck by a piece of shrapnel in the back of the neck and died instantly.

__ George Rock. Chapter 7. "Italy 1. Termoli, Volturno-Monte Camino, Trigno-Sangro-Ortona (1 October 1943 to 14 January 1944)" History of the American Field Service, 1920-1955. New York 1956.