Charles Blaber was born on 26 September 1892 at Steyning, Sussex, the son of Henry Blaber, a fellmonger’s labourer, and his second wife Lucy Matilda (née Fibbens, previously Ingram).

He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 22 June 1909 at HMS GANGES, giving his previous occupation as parchment maker’s assistant.  After short periods in the cruiser HMS DONEGAL and HMS ALBEMARLE, he joined the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS EXMOUTH in the Mediterranean in July 1910 and was rated Ordinary Seaman on his 18th birthday and Able Seaman in March 1912.  In December 1912 he transferred to the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS ALBEMARLE.  In August 1913 he was drafted to HMS VERNON where he qualified as a Torpedoman.  He remained at VERNON until the end of 1914 when he joined the coastal motor boat depot ship HMS HERMIONE, and then in April 1915 he joined HMS MAGPIE for duty on HM Torpedo Boat 078.

He joined HMS DOLPHIN on 8 January 1917, and then in March transferred to HMS ALECTO, depot ship for the Eighth Submarine Flotilla of coastal submarines.  In April 1917 he was assigned to HMS V1, a Vickers-built coastal submarine.  He died on 18 June 1917 in HMS ALECTO ‘from heart failure following tonsillitis’.  He is buried at Steyning (St Andrew) Churchyard.